The TP53 Database

X-ray diffraction structure of p53 bound to a strand of DNA. — Credit: Protein Data Bank - 1TSR

The TP53 Database is meant to be a source of information on TP53 variants for a broad range of scientists and clinicians who work in different research areas:

Basic research, to study the structural and functional aspects of the p53 protein and the TP53 gene
Molecular pathology of cancer, to understand the clinical significance of TP53 variants identified in cancer patients
Molecular epidemiology of cancer, to analyze the links between specific exposures and TP53 variant patterns in order to make inferences about possible causes of cancer
Molecular genetics, to analyze genotype/phenotype relationships

The TP53 Database compiles TP53 variant data that have been reported in the published literature since 1989 or are available in other public databases.

The following data are available:

TP53 functional and structural data including validated polymorphisms
TP53 somatic variants in sporadic cancers
TP53 germline variants in cancer patients, families with cancers and control populations
TP53 gene status in human cell-lines
Mouse models with engineered p53
Experimentally-induced TP53 variants

The database includes various annotations on the predicted or experimentally assessed functional impact of TP53 variants, clinicopathologic characteristics of tumors and demographic and life-style information on patients. This information is useful to compile tumor-specific variant patterns and to draw hypotheses on the nature of the molecular events involved in TP53 mutagenesis and allows for the analysis of genotype/phenotype relationships.

The ongoing project involves:

Performing regular review of the literature on TP53 variants
Extracting TP53 data from genetic and genomic databases
Developing standard annotations of TP53 variants
Performing research on TP53 variants, their patterns, origins and clinical impacts.