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. 2005 Sep 12:5:113.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2407-5-113.

Translation elongation factor eEF1A2 is a potential oncoprotein that is overexpressed in two-thirds of breast tumours

Victoria A L Tomlinson  1 , Helen J Newbery, Naomi R Wray, Juliette Jackson, Alexey Larionov, William R Miller, J Michael Dixon, Catherine M Abbott
Affiliations

Translation elongation factor eEF1A2 is a potential oncoprotein that is overexpressed in two-thirds of breast tumours

Victoria A L Tomlinson et al. BMC Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: The tissue-specific translation elongation factor eEF1A2 was recently shown to be a potential oncogene that is overexpressed in ovarian cancer. Although there is no direct evidence for an involvement of eEF1A2 in breast cancer, the genomic region to which EEF1A2 maps, 20q13, is frequently amplified in breast tumours. We therefore sought to establish whether eEF1A2 expression might be upregulated in breast cancer.

Methods: eEF1A2 is highly similar (98%) to the near-ubiquitously expressed eEF1A1 (formerly known as EF1-alpha) making analysis with commercial antibodies difficult. We have developed specific anti-eEF1A2 antibodies and used them in immunohistochemical analyses of tumour samples. We report the novel finding that although eEF1A2 is barely detectable in normal breast it is moderately to strongly expressed in two-thirds of breast tumours. This overexpression is strongly associated with estrogen receptor positivity.

Conclusion: eEF1A2 should be considered as a putative oncogene in breast cancer that may be a useful diagnostic marker and therapeutic target for a high proportion of breast tumours. The oncogenicity of eEF1A2 may be related to its role in protein synthesis or to its potential non-canonical functions in cytoskeletal remodelling or apoptosis.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Western blot analysis using an anti-eEF1A2 antibody on a range of cell lines. The loading control is GAPDH.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(A) Real-time RT-PCR analysis of RNA from breast tumours. Each block on the × axis represents a different tumour. The amount of eEF1A2 message is shown normalised to GAPDH and expressed relative to the level of expression in the normal breast RNA samples (=1). ER-negative tumours are shown in white, ER-positive tumours are shown in black. The difference in mean expression between ER-positive and ER-negative samples is 7.2 units (p = 0.0087), 95% Confidence Interval 2.0 to 12.4 units. (B) Average standardised RNA levels in ER-negative and ER-positive breast tumours. This difference is significant (P = 0.0087, t-test).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Immunohistochemistry of eEF1A2 in the breast. The panel labelled N shows the antibody staining weakly in a normal breast section. Panels T1 to T5 show breast tumours staining strongly with the anti-eEF1A2 antibody. Magnification ×10.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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