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Parafibromin is a tumor suppressor protein encoded by HRPT2, a gene recently implicated in the hereditary hyperparathyroidism-jaw tumor syndrome, parathyroid cancer, and a subset of kindreds with familial isolated hyperparathyroidism. Human parafibromin binds to RNA polymerase II as part of a PAF1 transcriptional regulatory complex. The mechanism by which loss of parafibromin function can lead to neoplastic transformation is poorly understood. Because the subcellular localization of parafibromin is likely to be critical for its function with the nuclear PAF1 complex, we sought to experimentally define the nuclear localization signal (NLS) of parafibromin and examine its potential role in parafibromin function. Using site-directed mutagenesis, we define a dominant bipartite NLS and a secondary NLS, both in the NH2-terminal region of parafibromin whose combined mutation nearly abolishes nuclear targeting. The NLS-mutant parafibromin is significantly impaired in its association with endogenous Paf1 and Leo1. We further report that overexpression of wild-type but not NLS-mutant parafibromin induces apoptosis in transfected cells. Inhibition of endogenous parafibromin expression by RNA interference inhibits the basal rate of apoptosis and apoptosis resulting from DNA damage induced by camptothecin, a topoisomerase I inhibitor. These experiments identify for the first time a proapoptotic activity of endogenous parafibromin likely to be important in its role as a tumor suppressor and show a functional role for the NLS of parafibromin in this activity. (Mol Cancer Res 2007;5(2):183–93)

Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is a common endocrine disease caused by parathyroid tumors (adenoma or hyperplasia). The hypersecreting parathyroid tumor elevates serum parathyroid hormone level, which causes hypercalcemia and the classical symptoms of PHPT, including kidney stones, osteoporosis, and neuromuscular symptoms associated with hypercalcemia, such as muscle weakness, drowsiness, and depression. Familial PHPT occurs in an isolated nonsyndromal form, termed familial isolated hyperparathyroidism (FIHP), or as part of a syndrome, such as multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 or hyperparathyroidism-jaw tumor syndrome. We performed exome sequencing on germline DNA of eight index cases from eight unrelated kindreds with FIHP. Rare variants were identified (minor allele frequency Citation Format: Bin Guan, James M. Welch, Julie C. Sapp, Hua Ling, Meghana Vemulapalli, Yulong Li, Jennifer J. Johnston, Electron Kebebew, Leslie G. Biesecker, William F. Simonds, Stephen J. Marx, Sunita K. Agarwal. Germline activating mutations in the proto-oncogene GCM2 in primary hyperparathyroidism [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 5646. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-5646

The hyperparathyroidism-jaw tumor syndrome (HPT-JT) is a familial cancer syndrome that results from germline loss-of-function mutation of HRPT2/CDC73, a putative tumor suppressor gene that encodes parafibromin, a component of the transcriptional regulatory PAF1 complex with homology to the yeast protein Cdc73p. The vast majority of HRPT2/CDC73 germline mutations identified have been truncation or frameshift mutations, and loss-of-function due to missense mutation is rare. We report here a kindred with HPT-JT due to a germline L95P missense mutation in parafibromin. The mutant parafibromin was studied in vitro to understand the basis of its presumed loss-of-function. When transfected in cultured cells the L95P mutant was expressed to a lower level than wild-type parafibromin, a difference that was not overcome by inhibition of the proteasome degradation pathway. The L95P mutant parafibromin retained the ability to assemble with endogenous PAF1 complex components as evidenced by co-immunoprecipitation. Analysis of subcellular localization showed that the L95P mutant was markedly deficient in nucleolar localization compared to the wild-type, an impairment likely resulting from disruption of a nucleolar localization signal immediately upstream of the L95P mutation. Transfection of the L95P parafibromin mutant, but not the wild type, increased HEK 293 cell survival and stimulated cell-cycle progression in NIH-3T3 cells, properties that appear to result from dominant interference with endogenous parafibromin signaling pathways. The simultaneous loss of nucleolar localization and acquisition of a growth stimulatory phenotype with the L95P mutation raise the possibility that parafibromin must interact with targets in the nucleolus to fully execute its tumor suppressor functions. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-10.