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Hereditas(Beijing) ›› 2021, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (3): 203-214.doi: 10.16288/j.yczz.20-320

• Review • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Progress on functional mechanisms of colorectal cancer causal SNPs in post-GWAS

Yige Li1,2,3(), Dandan Zhang1,2,3()   

  1. 1 Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
    2 Department of Medical Oncology of The Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
    3 Key Laboratory of Disease Proteomics of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou 310058, China;
  • Received:2020-12-01 Online:2021-03-16 Published:2021-01-14
  • Supported by:
    the National Natural Science Foundation of China(81773027);the National Natural Science Foundation of China(81101640);Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province of China(LY21H160027);Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities

Abstract:

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is caused by genetic and environmental factors, and the genetic component plays a significant role in CRC development. Currently, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified a large number of genetic loci associated with CRC risk. In the post-GWAS era, more and more efforts focus on deciphering the biological mechanisms behind these potential causal variants by using multi-omics data and functional experiments. Many analyses have revealed that most risk single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are located in non-coding regions and these variants may regulate the expression of target genes by altering the transcription factor-binding motif, epigenetic modification, chromatin accessibility or 3D genome conformation. Results obtained from post-GWAS era have highlighted the possibility of moving from association to function. In this review, we summarize the current status of CRC post-GWAS studies and discusses the clinical application as well as future directions of CRC GWAS, in order to better gain insight into the molecular basis of CRC and provide evidence for prevention.

Key words: colorectal cancer, post-GWAS, SNP, casual variant