Çukurova University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Gastroenterology, Adana, Turkey.
Gene. 2011 Oct 15;486(1-2):104-9. doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2011.07.006. Epub 2011 Jul 23.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are an abundant class of small non-protein coding RNAs with posttranscriptional regulatory functions as tumor suppressors and oncogenes. Aberrant expression and structural alteration of miRNAs are considered to participate in tumorigenesis and cancer development. It has been suggested that the presence of single nucleotide polymorphisms in precursor miRNAs (pre-miRNAs) can alter miRNA processing, expression, and/or binding to target mRNA and represent another type of genetic variability that can contribute to the susceptibility of human cancers. A G/C polymorphism (rs2910164), which is located in the sequence of miR-146a precursor, results in a change from G:U to C:U in its stem region.
To determine the association of the miR-146a rs2910164 polymorphism on the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development in Turkish population, a hospital-based case-control study was designed consisting of 222 subjects with HCC and 222 cancer-free control subjects matched on age, gender, smoking and alcohol status. The genotype frequency of miR-146a rs2910164 polymorphism was determined by using a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) assay.
No statistically significant differences were found in the allele or genotype distributions of the miR-146a rs2910164 polymorphism among HCC and cancer-free control subjects (p>0.05).
Our results demonstrate that the miR-146a rs2910164 polymorphism has no major role in genetic susceptibility to hepatocellular carcinogenesis, at least in the population studied here. Independent studies are needed to validate our findings in a larger series, as well as in patients of different ethnic origins.
微小 RNA（miRNAs）是一类丰富的小非编码 RNA，具有转录后调控功能，作为肿瘤抑制因子和癌基因。miRNAs 的异常表达和结构改变被认为参与了肿瘤发生和癌症发展。有人认为，前体 miRNAs（pre-miRNAs）中的单核苷酸多态性的存在可以改变 miRNA 的加工、表达和/或与靶 mRNA 的结合，并代表另一种遗传变异类型，可能导致人类癌症的易感性。一个位于 miR-146a 前体序列中的 G/C 多态性（rs2910164）导致其茎区的 G:U 变为 C:U。
为了确定 miR-146a rs2910164 多态性与土耳其人群肝细胞癌（HCC）发展风险的关联，我们设计了一项基于医院的病例对照研究，包括 222 例 HCC 患者和 222 例年龄、性别、吸烟和饮酒状况相匹配的无癌症对照。miR-146a rs2910164 多态性的基因型频率通过聚合酶链反应-限制性片段长度多态性（PCR-RFLP）检测来确定。
在 HCC 和无癌症对照组中，miR-146a rs2910164 多态性的等位基因或基因型分布没有统计学上的显著差异（p>0.05）。
我们的结果表明，miR-146a rs2910164 多态性在遗传易感性方面对肝细胞癌发生没有主要作用，至少在我们研究的人群中是这样。需要进行独立的研究来验证我们在更大系列以及不同种族起源的患者中的发现。
