The histone arginine demethylase JMJD6 is over-expressed in brain metastatic breast cancer.
Control of gene expression includes regulation by trans-acting transcription factors and cis-acting epigenetic regulation by chemical modification of histones and the DNA (1, 2). Brain metastases are a clinical problem in patients with breast cancer (3-5). We mined published microarray data (6, 7) to discover genes associated with brain metastasis in patients with brain metastatic breast cancer. We found that the gene encoding the histone arginine demethylase JMJD6 was among the genes most differentially expressed in the brain metastases of patients with brain metastatic breast cancer. JMJD6 may be of relevance to the biology underlying metastasis to the brain, and it may be of relevance as a potential therapeutic target in patients with intractable disease.