NLRP12 is differentially expressed and up-regulated in the bone metastases of patients with metastatic breast cancer.
To understand the transcriptional nature of metastasis to disparate sites in human breast cancer, we mined published microarray data (1), comparing global gene expression profiles of metastasis to the bones and to the lymph nodes. We discovered that the nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain leucine-rich region (NLR) pyrin domain containing family protein NLRP12 was among the genes whose expression was most different, transcriptome-wide, in bone and lymph node metastases. NLRP12 mRNA was present at significantly higher quantities in metastasis to the bone as compared to metastasis to the lymph nodes. Analysis of patient survival data revealed that expression of NLRP12 in primary tumors of the breast was correlated with recurrence-free survival, in lymph node positive patients but not in lymph node negative patients. NLRP12 has functions in transcriptional regulation of immune gene expression (2, 3) and in pathogen recognition of Yersinia pestis (4).