Abstract 6144: A polymorphic TERT tandem repeat creating an expandable intronic G4 quadruplex is associated with TERT expression, relative leukocyte telomere length and cancer risk
Authors: Florez-Vargas Oscar , Ho Michelle , Hogshead Max , Lee Chia-Han , Forsythe Kaitlin , Papenberg Brenen , Jones Kristine , Luo Wen , Teshome Kedest , Blauwendraat Cornelis , Kolmogorov Mikhail , Chanock Stephen J. , Machiela Mitchell J. , Schneekloth John , Gadalla Shahinaz , Savage Sharon A. , Mbulaiteye Sam M. , Prokunina-Olsson Ludmila 
Published: March 2024

A multi-cancer GWAS region at human chromosome 5p15 encodes telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT). One of the GWAS signals is rs10069690-T, which creates an alternative intron 4 splicing site, co-producing full-length (FL) and truncated INS1b transcript for dominant-negative telomerase-nonfunctional TERT. A variable number tandem repeat (VNTR6-1, 38 bp repeat unit) within intron 6 remains uncharacterized in relation to GWAS signals and cancer risk. We hypothesized that VNTR6-1 might contribute to GWAS signals represented by rs10069690.

We scored VNTR6-1 and rs10069690 in short-read WGS data (n=3,202) from the 1000 Genomes Project with a machine learning model using the GLMnet engine, and in phased long-read assemblies (n=544). We defined two VNTR6-1 groups: Short (24-27 copies) and Long (40.5-66.5 copies); the VNTR6-1-Long group was preferentially linked with rs10069690-T compared to C allele (p=2.53E-13). We show that haplotypes of rs56345976 and rs33961405 alleles can predict VNTR6-1 groups. We imputed VNTR6-1 in UK Biobank controls (n=351,634), PLCO cancer cases and controls (n=100,445), and African Burkitt lymphoma cases (aBL, n=79).

Functional studies in aBL tumors revealed a suggestive association between reduced total TERT expression, rs10096690-T (p=0.035) and VNTR6-1-Long (p=0.053). VNTR6-1 forms a G4 quadruplex structure sensitive to G4 stabilizing ligands, altering the ratio between FL-TERT and a dominant-negative TERT-β isoform in isogenic cell lines with/without VNTR6-1. In GTEx and TCGA, several metrics related to cell proliferation and telomerase activity correlated positively with FL-TERT expression and negatively with TERT-β expression.

We created a composite marker with 0, 1 or 2 copies of the FL-TERT-associated haplotype (VNTR6-1-Short/rs10069690-C) to capture the effects of these variants that negatively affect TERT expression and telomerase activity. The number of copies of the VNTR6-1/rs10069690 haplotype was associated with relative leukocyte telomere length in UK Biobank controlling for sex and age (β=0.049, p=8.75E-78). This marker was also associated with a reduced risk of bladder and prostate cancer but an increased risk of breast, endometrial, ovarian, thyroid cancer, and glioma in PLCO.

Our findings reveal that germline variants VNTR6-1-Long/rs10069690-T underlie the multi-cancer GWAS signal and jointly decrease TERT expression and telomerase activity, potentially reducing the risk of some cancers by limiting cell growth. However, decreased telomerase activity could deregulate stem cell-driven tissue regeneration and genome integrity, increasing the risk of other cancers. Our findings unveil novel mechanisms of cancer susceptibility and propose therapeutic avenues for targeting TERT isoform ratios to modulate telomerase activity and its cellular effects.

Citation Format: Oscar Florez-Vargas, Michelle Ho, Max Hogshead, Chia-Han Lee, Kaitlin Forsythe, Brenen Papenberg, Kristine Jones, Wen Luo, Kedest Teshome, Cornelis Blauwendraat, Mikhail Kolmogorov, Stephen J. Chanock, Mitchell J. Machiela, John Schneekloth, Shahinaz Gadalla, Sharon A. Savage, Sam M. Mbulaiteye, Ludmila Prokunina-Olsson. A polymorphic TERT tandem repeat creating an expandable intronic G4 quadruplex is associated with TERT expression, relative leukocyte telomere length and cancer risk [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 6144.