Association between a functional variant in microRNA-27a and susceptibility to colorectal cancer in a Chinese Han population

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Polymorphisms in pri-, pre-, and mature-microRNAs (miRNAs) have been proposed to be associated with various human cancers. Common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in miRNA genes can influence the maturation of miRNAs or miRNA-mediated transcriptional regulation. Through genotyping the rs895819 SNP in 254 colorectal cancer (CRC) patients and 238 healthy controls by polymerase chain reaction-restricted fragment length polymorphism, a case-control study was performed to investigate a possible association between a common A/G polymorphism (rs895819) within hsa-mir-27a and susceptibility to CRC in a Chinese Han population. In addition, after examining miR-27a expression levels in CRC tissues (N = 57) obtained from these CRC patients, we found that subjects with variant genotypes (AG+GG) had a significantly increased risk of developing Association of an SNP in miR-27a with colorectal cancer CRC compared to AA carriers (odds ratio (OR) = 1.619, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.129-2.322). The elevated risk was especially evident in older (age ≥ 60 years) and male subjects. Further functional analyses indicated that the relative expression of miR-27a was significantly greater in tumor tissues from GG patients or patients carrying at least one G allele than in those from AA patients. In conclusion, we provide the first evidence that an miR-27a polymorphism contributes to CRC susceptibility in the Chinese Han population by modulating mature miR-27a expression.

MicroRNA variants and colorectal cancer risk: a meta-analysis

“…Recently, numerous miRNA sequence variations have been implicated in CRC (Lv et al, 2013;Cao et al, 2014). However, the results of many such studies are conflicting and inconclusive.…”

“…After screening of titles and abstracts, 38 studies clearly irrelevant to the subject of interest were excluded, and from the remaining 40 publications, 18 reviews were removed. Finally, after screening of method sections, 22 epidemiological investigations focusing on the importance of miRNA-related SNPs in CRC susceptibility were retained [Zhan et al, 2011;Chen et al, 2012;Hezova et al, 2012;Min et al, 2012;Ryan et al, 2012;Zhang et al, 2012;Zhu et al, 2012;Chae et al, 2013;Gao et al, 2013;Lv et al, 2013;Ma et al, 2013;Vinci et al, 2013;Cao et al, 2014;Hu et al, 2014;Li et al, 2013Li et al, , 2014 (for unpublished results of Chen, 2013); Mao et al, 2014;Oh et al, 2014;Parlayan et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2014a,b;Dikaiakos et al, 2015; miRNA = microRNA; SNP = single nucleotide polymorphism; HB = hospital-based study; PB = populationbased study; PCR-RFLP = polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism; PCR-LDR = polymerase chain reaction-ligase detection reaction; HRM = high-resolution melting. 1 Unpublished data recorded by Chen (2013), included in the review authored by Li et al (2014).…”

“…rs895819 is located at position +40 relative to the first nucleotide of miR-27a. This A to G mutation has been shown to increase miR-27a expression in tumor tissues (Cao et al, 2014). We examined three publications, involving 656 cases and 905 controls (Table 5).…”

Genotype GG of rs895819 Functional Polymorphism Within miR‐27a Might Increase Genetic Susceptibility to Colorectal Cancer in Han Chinese Population

“…However, Cao et al. reported that genotypes AG and GG had a significantly increased risk of developing CRC compared to AA carriers in Chinese. For this, in order to address the role of rs895819 in susceptibility to CRC, we genotyped the locus in 508 CRC patients and 562 healthy check‐up individuals using TaqMan genotyping polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system, and examined the possible association between them.…”

Effects of miR-27a upregulation on thyroid cancer cells migration, invasion, and angiogenesis

“…In the recent years, it has been shown that microRNAs (miRNAs) play a critical role in a variety of diseases, especially in cancers (Wang et al, 2012;Cao et al, 2014;Qi et al, 2015). A miRNA is a type of non-coding single-stranded RNA, usually between 18 to 24 bp long.…”