A pri-miR-218 variant and risk of cervical carcinoma in Chinese women

Abstract

Background: MicroRNA (miRNA)-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) may compromise miRNA binding affinity and modify mRNA expression levels of the target genes, thus leading to cancer susceptibility. However, few studies have investigated roles of miRNA-related SNPs in the etiology of cervical carcinoma.

Methods: In this case-control study of 1,584 cervical cancer cases and 1,394 cancer-free female controls, we investigated associations between two miR-218-related SNPs involved in the LAMB3-miR-218 pathway and the risk of cervical carcinoma in Eastern Chinese women.

Results: We found that the pri-miR-218 rs11134527 variant GG genotype was significantly associated with a decreased risk of cervical carcinoma compared with AA/AG genotypes (adjusted OR=0.77, 95% CI=0.63-0.95, P=0.015). However, this association was not observed for the miR-218 binding site SNP (rs2566) on LAMB3. Using the multifactor dimensionality reduction analysis, we observed some evidence of interactions of these two SNPs with other risk factors, especially age at primiparity and menopausal status, in the risk of cervical carcinoma.

Conclusions: The pri-miR-218 rs11134527 SNP was significantly associated with the risk of cervical carcinoma in Eastern Chinese women. Larger, independent studies are warranted to validate our findings.

Figure 1

The secondary structures of the pri-miR-218 mRNA. These structures were predicted by inputting two 801-nt long pri-miR-218 DNA sequences centering the rs11134527 locus into RNAfold, with either (a) the rs11134527-A or (b) rs11134527-G allele. The figures and the values of minimum free energy were generated by RNAfold (http://rna.tbi.univie.ac.at).