Contribution of interaction between genetic variants of interleukin-11 and infection to the susceptibility of gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND

Gastric cancer (GC) ranks the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. We aimed to clarify the relevance of genetic variants of , a hub of various carcinogenic pathways, as well as their interactions with () infection in the development of GC.

METHODS

A case-control study with 880 GC cases and 900 healthy controls was conducted in a Chinese population. Six tagSNPs were detected by Taqman Allelic Discrimination assay, while status was detected by Typing Detection Kit for Antibody to and serum level was measured using ELISA method.

RESULTS

We found that rs1126760 (C vs T: OR=1.39, 95% CIs=1.13-1.70, =0.002) and rs1126757 (C vs T: OR=0.82, 95% CIs=0.72-0.93, =0.002) were significantly associated with susceptibility of GC. Even adjusted for Bonferroni correction, the results were still significant (=0.002×6=0.012). rs1126760 was significantly associated with higher serum and expression level of , while rs1126757 was significantly associated with lower serum level (<0.001). Significant interaction with infection was identified for rs1126760 ( for interaction =0.005). Higher expression of the gene was significant with development and poor prognosis of GC.

CONCLUSION

Our study provides strong evidence that genetic variants of the gene may interact with infection and contribute to the development of GC. Further studies with larger sample size and functional experiments are needed to validate our findings.