Abstract 3631: Transcriptome-wide association study identifies novel genes associated with breast cancer susceptibility in Latinas
Authors: Kapoor Pooja Middha , Mak Angel C. , Kachuri Linda , Hu Donglei , Huntsman Scott , Kushi Lawrence H. , Haiman Christopher , John Esther M. , Torres-Mejia Gabriela , Burchard Esteban G. , Neuhausen Susan L. , Fejerman Laura , Ziv Elad 
Published: June 2022

Background: Genetic susceptibility to breast cancer has been studied extensively in European ancestry populations, but few studies have addressed genetic susceptibility in non-European women. Latinas are a genetically diverse group with contributions from European, African, and Indigenous American ancestries. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified unique variants in this population, particularly at the 6q25 locus. We conducted a transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) to identify novel genes associated with risk of breast cancer in Latinas.

Methods: We used individual level GWAS data from 2,396 Latina cases and 6,505 Latina controls from the studies in Northern California (San Francisco Bay Area Breast Cancer Study, Northern California Breast Cancer Family Registry and Kaiser Permanente Genetic Epidemiology Research on Aging Cohort), Southern California (Multi-ethnic Cohort) and Mexico (CAMA study). We analyzed the association between genetically predicted whole blood (WB) gene expression and breast cancer risk using newly developed TWAS models based on 784 Mexican American individuals. We also conducted parallel analyses using breast mammary tissue (BT) TWAS models from GTEx v8. All analyses were adjusted for age, ancestry, and study. Associations with false discovery rate (FDR) probability &lt;0.05 were considered statistically significant.

Results: At FDR&lt;0.05, we identified 20 genes from BT and 39 genes from WB. Seven of the genes were significantly associated in both the WB models and GTEx BT models. Increased expression of MIB2 (pFDR = 4.74x10-17 (WB) and 1.22x10-4 (BT)), NBPF26 (pFDR = 1.30x10-7 (WB) and 7.43x10-8 (BT)), SLC35E2B (pFDR = 1.12x10-4 (WB) and 5.47x10-5 (BT)), and FAM30A (pFDR = 1.18x10-10 (WB) and 9.27x10-3 (BT)) was associated with increased risk of breast cancer risk, whereas increased expression of SLC35E2A (pFDR = 8.17x10-6 (WB) and 1.55x10-3 (BT)) and HCP5B (pFDR = 1.84x10-3 (WB) and 2.19x10-3 (BT)) was associated with decreased breast cancer risk. Increased expression of PDGFA was associated with increased risk (pFDR = 1.30x10-7) in GTEx BT reference models but decreased risk (pFDR = 2.34x10-10) in the ancestry-specific WB model.

Conclusion: Our study is the first TWAS investigating the relationship between genetically predicted gene expression and breast cancer risk in Latinas. By leveraging gene expression prediction models that capture eQTLs that are more common in populations with Indigenous American ancestry, we have identified some novel genes associated with breast cancer risk in Latinas. Of these, MIB2 is a strong candidate for a mechanistic role in breast carcinogenesis in Latinas. MIB2 is involved in Notch signaling which plays an important role in breast carcinogenesis via its mismatched receptor-ligand interaction. Our study highlights the role of ancestry-based prediction models in TWAS analyses.

Citation Format: Pooja Middha Kapoor, Angel C. Mak, Linda Kachuri, Donglei Hu, Scott Huntsman, Lawrence H. Kushi, Christopher Haiman, Esther M. John, Gabriela Torres-Mejia, Esteban G. Burchard, Susan L. Neuhausen, Laura Fejerman, Elad Ziv. Transcriptome-wide association study identifies novel genes associated with breast cancer susceptibility in Latinas [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 3631.