Issues

The cover image is adapted from Fig. 2 in the article, “Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroups and SNPs: Risk Factors in Multiple Cancers Based on a Cross-Tumor Analysis in Chinese Population,” by Chen and colleagues. Mitochondrial DNA’s (mtDNA) haplogroups and single nucleotide polymorphisms were associated with the risk of different cancers. However, there is no evidence that the same haplogroup or mitochondrial SNP (mtSNP) exhibits the pleiotropic effect on multiple cancers. The authors collected mtDNA sequencing data from colorectal cancer, liver cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, bladder cancer patient cohorts, and healthy individuals from their laboratory and combined publicly available mtSNP data from the Northern Han Chinese population. The authors systematically investigated the roles of mtDNA haplogroups and mtSNPs in the incidence risk of multiple cancers and established a risk score based on 11 SNPs. Figure 2 shows gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) for patients with haplogroup A/M7 in colorectal cancer. Results revealed that specific mtDNA haplogroups and mtSNPs may play a role in predicting multiple cancer predisposition in Chinese populations. This may provide a potential tool for early screening in clinical settings for individuals in the Chinese population. For more information, see the article beginning on page 381.