Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The data presented herein represents the preliminary results of the functional assays of a recently conducted larger study in which two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) [XRCC2:rs3218550 and PHB:rs6917] were significantly associated with risk of breast cancer among Sri Lankan postmenopausal women. The rs3218550 T allele and rs6917 A allele were found to increase breast cancer risk by 1.5-fold and 1.4-fold, respectively. Both SNPs are located in the 3'untranslated region (3'UTR) of the respective genes. It was hypothesized that these non-coding SNPs may be exerting some transcriptional regulatory effects on gene expression. Their putative functional effects were further investigated by generating bioluminescent recombinant experimental reporter gene constructs carrying the ancestral and variant alleles of these 2 SNPs, transiently transfecting them in MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines and performing dual-luciferase reporter gene assays to measure the luminescent signals. DATA DESCRIPTION: The normalized relative luciferase activity for the recombinant vector constructs carrying the ancestral and variant alleles for XRCC2:rs3218550 and PHB:rs6917 are presented herein. This data might be of relevance to other researchers involved in delineating the functional mechanisms of SNPs located in the 3'UTR of the XRCC2 and PHB breast cancer related genes.