So I’m reading this paper from my old lab group and they decided to look at this gene that I’ve never heard of that supposedly acts as a tumor suppressor and has roles in hypomethylation. I’m attempting to find rationale for looking at this particular gene in this paper, but the only reason I can think this gene is of interest to them is due to its potential association with epigenetic processes. But in true stupid fashion, I’m still scratching my head like, “Huh? But why?”
So you know me, ever the avid google scholar, I take to the infamous search engine to find out more about it, and there are literally maybe a handful of papers that pop up. This is a rare occurrence indeed in my short journey in the world of science and discovery. Dr. Google typically reveals all when I just want some quick info.
The Wikipedia page even hits you with a one liner “-is a protein that in humans is encoded by the DCBLD2 gene.”
Uh… duh?
I look at the GeneCard summary, but that only led to more questions, “Like why did they choose to look at DCBLD2 in relation to breast cancer of all things? Especially if it’s primarily associated with deafness and vastly studied in neuroscience...” UGH!
So in true millennial fashion, I have a minor hissy fit at not being able to find the information I’m searching for in 15 minutes (IKR, those darn lazy kids!). After being redirected to the same 2 citations I take to pubmed and see if she can reveal something for me.
And as suspected there are less than 20 papers available on pubmed that study this gene, and about half of those deal with cancer, literally 0 appear in the search for breast cancer.
If you could care less about this gene, you can close this blog post now. BUT if you know all about DCBLD2 and want to laugh at my attempt to discuss this gene, or fall
somewhere between not caring and slightly curious, feel free to read on.
So I was able to find out that Discoidin, CUB and LCCL domain containing 2 (DCBLD2) has been reported to be involved in the processes of invasion, progression and metastasis. It is differentially expressed in neuroendocrine cell lines when compared to non-neuroendocrine cell lines. For whatever reason it is downregulated, and the paper published by my old lab shows that it is under expressed in early transformed breast cancer cells. The only rationale I see provided for the observation of this gene is that it is a tumor suppressor gene which did little to satisfy my curiosity.
In addition to its under expression in cancer cells, DCBLD2 is aberrantly methylated at its promoter in gastric cancer cells and in the actual tumors.
RANDOM POP QUIZ!!!!
Now kids, let’s see if you can remember what methylation at the promoter region of a gene can lead to.
A. Gene Silencing
B. Gene Activation
C. Who tf cares
If you said C… we should link up at happy hour for drinks, and if you said B… I’m disappointed that you didn’t use the context clues littered throughout this terribly written blog piece.
Hypermethyltion, or over methylation at the promoter region of tumor suppressor genes is associated with their inactivation.
Methylation=OFF
Still confused? The answer is A… A!
I continued to casually browse the scarce literature on my most recent object of fascination and discovered that some clever person decided to re-name this wonderful gene associated with tumor suppression. And it’s called ESDN which is short for something really long and semi-complicated but not as complicated as Discoidin, CUB and LCCL domain containing 2 (but the way my copy and paste is set up…). The important thing is that there’s a bit of literature out on ESDN and one paper written by our friends from Japan was my one stop shop for all I wanted to know about the ever elusive ESDN AKA DCBLD2.
📷
A part of me is wondering if I should post this blog… but if you’re reading this… it means the other part of me who is unashamed of her stupidity when it comes to new subjects didn’t care enough not to post it.
Here are some papers if you care at all. (Just copy and paste these bad boys in your URL browser)
10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-07-0142
http://www.jbc.org/content/276/36/34105.full (My one stop shop from our friends in Japan)