ClinVar

Description

This missense variant replaces arginine with cysteine at codon 496 of the SMAD4 protein. Computational prediction suggests that this variant may have deleterious impact on protein structure and function (internally defined REVEL score threshold >= 0.7, PMID: 27666373). Experimental functional studies have provided evidence that this variant may impact protein function. In vitro studies have shown an increase in SMAD4 protein levels and the phosphorylated SMAD2/total SMAD2 protein ratio (PMID: 24398790), a significant increase in gene expression compared to wild type in transcriptional activation assays (PMID: 31654632), and decreased proliferation, and elevated expression of cellular senescence and inflammatory markers in a cell based assay (PMID: 33428109). In silico structural analyses have also suggested an impact to the stability of the SMAD heterotrimer and/or proper SMAD4 ubiquitination (PMID: 24715504). This variant has been reported in numerous individuals affected with Myhre syndrome (PMID: 22158539, 24398790, 24424121, 24715504, 24841914, 26633542, 28628100, 30968316, 31595668, 31837202). Three individuals were also affected with endometrial cancer (PMID: 31837202). This variant has been identified in 2/251432 chromosomes in the general population by the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD). Although this variant is considered Pathogenic for autosomal dominant Myhre Syndrome, the available evidence is insufficient to determine the role of this variant in cancer predisposition conclusively. Therefore, this variant is classified as a Variant of Uncertain Significance.