Detection of association of IL1β, IL4R, and IL6 gene polymorphisms with cervical cancer in the Bangladeshi women by tetra-primer ARMS-PCR method

Genetic association of Interleukin-17A polymorphism in Bangladeshi patients with breast and cervical cancer: a case-control study with functional analysis

BACKGROUND

Breast and cervical cancer are the two leading cancers in terms of incidence and mortality. Previous studies reported different interleukins, including interleukin-17A (IL-17A) to be responsible for the development and progression of these malignancies. Therefore, we speculated that the variants in this gene might be associated with these cancer developments in Bangladeshi population. For evaluating the hypothesis, we investigated the association of IL-17A rs3748067 polymorphism with the susceptibility of both breast and cervical cancer.

METHODS

This case-control study was performed on 156 breast cancer patients, 156 cervical cancer patients, and 156 controls using the tetra-primer amplification refractory mutation system-polymerase chain reaction. The statistical software package SPSS (version 25.0) was applied for analyses. The genetic association was measured by the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). A statistically significant association was considered when p-value ≤ 0.05. Functional analysis was performed using GEPIA and UALCAN databases.

RESULTS

From the calculation of the association of IL-17A rs3748067 with breast cancer, it is found that no genotype or allele showed a statistically significant association (p>0.05). On the other hand, the analysis of IL-17A rs3748067 with cervical cancer demonstrated that CT genotype showed a significant association (CT vs. CC: OR=1.79, p=0.021). In the overdominant model, CT genotype also revealed a statistically significant association with cervical cancer, which is found to be statistically significant (OR=1.84, p=0.015).

CONCLUSION

Our study summarizes that rs3748067 polymorphism in the IL-17A gene may be associated with cervical cancer but not breast cancer in Bangladeshi patients. However, we suggest studies in the future with a larger sample size.

Cytokines signatures and susceptibility to cutaneous leishmaniasis in patients from Sistan and Baluchestan province of Iran

BACKGROUND

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a complex, multifactorial disease that results from environmental factors such as parasite polymorphism, phlebotomine vectors, and host genetic factors. Some studies have identified specific genetic factors that may be associated with cutaneous leishmaniasis. The objective of this research was to resolve the association of 8 cytokine polymorphisms, including TNF-α -308 A/G (rs 1800629), TNF-α -238 A/G (rs 361525), TGF-β1 -509 T/C (rs 1800469), TGF-β1+ 915 G/C (rs 1800471), IFN-γ -874 T/A (rs 2430561), IFN-γ -179 G/A (rs 2069709), IL-10 -819 C/T (rs 1800871), and IL-10 -592 A/C (rs 1800872) with susceptibility to CL.

METHODS

A total of 152 patients with designated CL and 100 healthy controls were selected from those referred to Sistan and Baluchestan hospitals. CL was diagnosed by microscopic examination of Giemsa-stained samples and culture. Leishmania species were identified using ITS2 gene PCR amplification with universal primers. Genetic polymorphism was determined by the ARMS PCR method on extracted genomic DNA of individuals. Eight SNPs cytokines were genotyped.

RESULTS

Most of the Genotypic and allelic frequency comparisons between patients with CL and healthy subjects showed no difference, except 3. Individual SNP analysis showed highest association of TGF-β1 -509 (rs1800469) -CC genotype (P = 0.03, OR = 7.05, 95 % CI = 3.3-15) with 5.7-fold increase, IFN-γ -874 (rs 2430561) -AA genotype (P = 0.04, OR = 4.72, 95 % CI = 1.6-14) with 4.2-fold increase, and IL10 -819 (rs1800871) -CC genotype (P = 0.05, OR = 3.63, 95 % CI = 2.5-5.3) with 1.9-fold increase, with CL. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) were evaluated to assess the association power.

CONCLUSION

Our results conclude that rs1800469 (TGF-β1), rs2430561 (INF-γ), and rs1800872 (IL10) polymorphisms are associated with CL in southeastern Iranian people.

The potential mechanism of Guizhi Fuling Wan effect in the treatment of cervical squamous cell carcinoma: A bioinformatics analysis investigation

As a global malignancy with high mortality rate, targeted drug development for Uterine Cervical Neoplasms is an important direction. The traditional formula Guizhi Fuling Wan (GFW) is widely used in gynecological diseases. However, its potential mechanism of action remains to be discovered. We retrieved GFW and cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) targets from public databases. The protein-protein interaction network was obtained by string computational analysis and imported Cytoscape_v3.9.0 to obtain the core network and the top 10 Hub genes. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes were used for enrichment analysis of the core network, and then molecular docking to verify whether the selected signaling pathway binds well to the core node. Finally, clinical prognostic analysis and expression differences of Hub genes were validated using the Cancer Genome Atlas database and R language. Our search yielded 152 common targets for GFW and CSCC. The interleukin-17 signaling pathway, tumor necrosis factor signaling pathway, and Toll-like signaling pathway were then selected for further molecular docking from the hub genes enrichment analysis results, which showed good binding. Among the Hub genes, JUN, VEGFA, IL1B, and EGF had a poor prognosis for CSCC. In conclusion, this study illustrates that GFW can have adjuvant therapeutic effects on CSCC through multiple targets and multiple pathways, providing a basis for further research.

Exploring the prognostic significance of PKCε variants in cervical cancer

BACKGROUND

Protein Kinase C-epsilon (PKCε) is a member of the novel subfamily of PKCs (nPKCs) that plays a role in cancer development. Studies have revealed that its elevated expression levels are associated with cervical cancer. Previously, we identified pathogenic variations in its different domains through various bioinformatics tools and molecular dynamic simulation. In the present study, the aim was to find the association of its variants rs1553369874 and rs1345511001 with cervical cancer and to determine the influence of these variants on the protein-protein interactions of PKCε, which can lead towards cancer development and poor survival rates.

METHODS

The association of the variants with cervical cancer and its clinicopathological features was determined through genotyping analysis. Odds ratio and relative risk along with Fisher exact test were calculated to evaluate variants significance and disease risk. Protein-protein docking was performed and docked complexes were subjected to molecular dynamics simulation to gauge the variants impact on PKCε's molecular interactions.

RESULTS

This study revealed that genetic variants rs1553369874 and rs1345511001 were associated with cervical cancer. Smad3 interacts with PKCε and this interaction promotes cervical cancer angiogenesis; therefore, Smad3 was selected for protein-protein docking. The analysis revealed PKCε variants promoted aberrant interactions with Smad3 that might lead to the activation of oncogenic pathways. The data obtained from this study suggested the prognostic significance of PRKCE gene variants rs1553369874 and rs1345511001.

CONCLUSION

Through further in vitro and in vivo validation, these variants can be used at the clinical level as novel prognostic markers and therapeutic targets against cervical cancer.

Assessment of the association of CYP1A1 gene polymorphisms with the susceptibility of cervical cancer: A case-control study and meta-analysis

Background

Cervical cancer (CC) is the second most common type of female malignancy in Bangladesh. Polymorphisms in the CYP1A1 gene have been reported to be associated with CC in different populations. This case-control study with meta-analysis was undertaken to assess the relation of CYP1A1 rs4646903 and rs1048943 polymorphisms with the susceptibility of CC.

Methods

A total of 185 CC patients and 220 controls were recruited, and the PCR-RFLP (Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism) technique was applied for genotyping. Again, 42 eligible studies (24 with rs4646903 and 18 with rs1048943) were included for meta-analysis, and RevMan 5.3 and the MetaGenyo web-based tool were used.

Results

The rs4646903 polymorphism was significantly linked with CC in all association models, namely, additive 1, additive 2, dominant, recessive, overdominant, and allele models (OR = 2.41, 4.75, 2.67, 3.61, 2.13, and 2.44 with corresponding 95% CI = 1.55-3.76, 1.81-12.45, 1.75-4.07, 1.39-9.35, 1.38-3.30, and 1.71-3.48, respectively). On the contrary, rs1048943 showed no association (p > 0.05) with CC. Haplotype analysis revealed AT and AC haplotypes significantly decreased (OR = 0.45) and increased (OR = 4.86) CC risk, respectively, and SNPs are in strong linkage disequilibrium (D' = 0.912, r² = 0.448). Again, rs4646903 carriers with a contraception history and >5 years of taking contraceptives showed an enhanced risk of CC (OR = 2.39, OR = 3.05). Besides, rs1048943 carriers aged >40 years (OR = 0.44), conceived first child aged ≤18 years (OR = 3.45), and history of contraceptives (OR = 2.18) were significantly linked with CC. Our meta-analysis found that for CYP1A1 rs4646903 codominant 1 (COD 1), codominant 2 (COD 2), codominant 3 (COD 3), dominant model (DM), recessive model (RM), and allele model (AM) in Caucasians and overdominant model (OD) in the overall population are associated with an elevated risk of CC, whereas rs1048943 is also associated with CC in overall, Caucasians and Asians in some genetic models.

Conclusion

Our case-control study and meta-analysis summarize that CYP1A1 rs4646903 and rs1048943 polymorphisms may be correlated with cervical cancer.

Polymorphisms of the interleukin-6 (IL-6) gene contribute to cervical cancer susceptibility in Bangladeshi women: A case-control study

Background and Aims

Cervical cancer is characterized by abnormal cell growth in the lining of cervix and it is the second major cause of cancer-related deaths among females in Bangladesh. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a multifunctional cytokine that has been heavily linked with cervical cancer. Our aim was to investigate the association of two promoter single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of IL-6 (rs1800795 and rs1800797) with the susceptibility of cervical cancer in Bangladeshi women.

Methods

DNA was extracted from venous blood samples from cervical cancer patients (n = 126) and healthy controls (n = 120). Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism was used for genotyping of the selected SNPs. Logistic regression was performed to calculate the odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) and p values.

Results

We found a significant association between rs1800795 and rs1800797 polymorphisms and cervical cancer. For, rs1800795 (G > C) the GC heterozygous genotype (OR = 2.80, 95% CI = 1.55-5.07, p = 0.0007) and CC mutant homozygous genotype (OR = 3.5, 95% CI = 1.29-9.51, p = 0.014) conferred an increased risk of cervical cancer. In case of rs1800797 (G > A) polymorphism, the AG heterozygous genotype (OR = 6.94, 95% CI = 3.76-12.81, p < 0.0001) and AA mutant homozygous genotype (OR = 3.88, 95% CI = 1.12-13.51, p = 0.0332) also exhibited an elevated risk of cervical cancer. Use of contraceptives was found as risk factor and patients who smoke were carriers of both the risk alleles and thus had an increased risk of cervical cancer.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that polymorphism of rs1800795 and rs1800797 of the IL-6 gene play a significant role in cervical cancer susceptibility in Bangladeshi women.

Variability, Expression, and Methylation of IL-6 and IL-8 Genes in Bladder Cancer Pathophysiology

Bladder cancer (BC) is the 10th most common form of cancer globally, but its complete aetiology is still unknown. Nevertheless, there is evidence that chronic inflammation plays a role in the development and progression of BC. Therefore, the presented study aimed to detect a potential association between selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)—rs1800797 and rs2069845 in IL-6 and rs2227307 in IL-8—and BC development, as well as to identify the impact of BC on the level of expression and methylation of IL-6 and IL-8 promoters in PBMCs with the use of the TaqMan SNP genotyping assay, TaqMan gene expression assay, and methylation-sensitive high-resolution melting techniques. We did not find any association between the genotypes and combined genotypes of all studied polymorphisms and the occurrence of BC. However, we found that BC patients were characterised by decreased IL-6 and IL-8 mRNA expression levels compared to the controls. Additionally, the methylation status of the IL-6 promoter was higher in controls than in BC patients. Our findings suggest that inflammation may be involved in the development and progression of BC.

Small secretory proteins of immune cells can modulate gynecological cancers

Small secretory proteins of immune cells are mostly Cytokines, which include chemokines, interleukins, interferons, lymphokines and tumor necrosis factors but not hormones or growth factors. These secretory proteins are the molecular messengers and primarily involved in autocrine, paracrine and endocrine signaling as immunomodulating agents. Hence, these proteins actually regulate the cells of immune system to communicate with one another to produce a synchronized, robust, still self-regulated response to a specific antigen. Chemokines are smaller secreted proteins that control overall immune cell movement and location; these chemokines are divided into 4 subgroups, namely, CXC, CC, CX3C and C according to the position of 4 conserved cysteine residues. Complete characterization of cytokines and chemokines can exploit their vast signaling networks to develop cancer treatments. These secretory proteins like IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, TNFα, CCL2, CXCL4 & CXCL8 are predominantly expressed in most of the gynecological cancers, which directly stimulate immune effector cells and stromal cells at the tumor site and augment tumor cell recognition by cytotoxic T-cells. Hence; these secretory proteins are the major regulators, which can actually modulate all kinds of gynecological cancers. Furthermore, advancements in adoptive T-cell treatment have relied on the use of multiple cytokines/chemokines to establish a highly regulated environment for anti-tumor T cell growth. A number of in vitro studies as well as animal models and clinical subjects have also shown that cytokines/chemokines have broad antitumor activity, which has been translated into a number of cancer therapy approaches. This review will focus on the foremost cytokines & chemokines involved in the majority of the gynecological malignancies and discuss their basic biology as well as clinical applications.

Identification of a necroptosis-related prognostic gene signature associated with tumor immune microenvironment in cervical carcinoma and experimental verification

Cervical carcinoma (CC) has been associated with high morbidity, poor prognosis, and high intratumor heterogeneity. Necroptosis is the significant cellular signal pathway in tumors which may overcome tumor cells’ apoptosis resistance. To investigate the relationship between CC and necroptosis, we established a prognostic model based on necroptosis-related genes for predicting the overall survival (OS) of CC patients. The gene expression data and clinical information of cervical squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma (CESC) patients were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We identified 43 differentially expressed necroptosis-related genes (NRGs) in CESC by examining differential gene expression between CESC tumors and normal tissues, and 159 NRGs from the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database. Gene ontology (GO) and KEGG enrichment analysis illustrated that the genes identified were mainly related to cell necrosis, extrinsic apoptosis, Influenza A, I − kappaB kinase/NF − kappaB, NOD − like receptor, and other signaling pathways. Subsequently, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression and univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to screen for NRGs that were correlated with patient prognosis. A prognostic signature that includes CAMK2A, CYBB, IL1A, IL1B, SLC25A5, and TICAM2 was established. Based on the prognostic model, patients were stratified into either the high-risk or low-risk subgroups with distinct survival. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to identify the predictive accuracy of the model. In relation to different clinical variables, stratification analyses were performed to demonstrate the associations between the expression levels of the six identified NRGs and the clinical variables in CESC. Immunohistochemical (IHC) validation experiments explored abnormal expressions of these six NRGs in CESC. We also explored the relationship between risk score of this necroptosis signature and expression levels of some driver genes in TCGA CESC database and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets. Significant relationships between the six prognostic NRGs and immune-cell infiltration, chemokines, tumor mutation burden (TMB), microsatellite instability (MSI), and immune checkpoints in CESC were discovered. In conclusion, we successfully constructed and validated a novel NRG signature for predicting the prognosis of CC patients and might also play a crucial role in the progression and immune microenvironment in CC.

Low Tumor Infiltrating Mast Cell Density Reveals Prognostic Benefit in Cervical Carcinoma

Objectives: Research on the role of mast cells (MCs) in cervical tumor immunity is more limited. Therefore, our study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of MCs and their correlation with the immune microenvironment of cervical carcinoma (CC). Methods: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data was utilized to obtain the degree of immune infiltration of MCs in CC. Meanwhile, this study retrospectively collected patient clinical characteristic data and tissue specimens to further verify the relevant conclusions. Mast cell density (MCD) was measured by the CIBERSORT algorithm in TCGA data and immunohistochemical staining of tryptase in CC tissues. Finally, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of TCGA data were performed using "limma" packages and key gene modules were identified using the MCODE application in Cytoscape. Results: The results showed MCs were diffusely distributed in CC tissues. Moreover, we found that low tumor-infiltrating MCD was beneficial for overall survival (OS) in the TCGA cohort. Consistent conclusions were also obtained in a clinical cohort. In addition, a total of 305 DEGs were analyzed between the high tumor-infiltrating MCD and low tumor-infiltrating MCD group. Seven key modules, a total of 34 genes, were screened through the MCODE plug-in, which was mainly related to inflammatory response and immune response and closely correlated with cytokines including CSF2, CCL20, IL1A, IL1B, and CXCL8. Conclusion: In short, high tumor-infiltration MCs in CC tissue was associated with worse OS in patients. Furthermore, MCs were closely related to cytokines in the tumor microenvironment, suggesting that they collectively played a role in the immune response of the tumor. Therefore, MCD may be a potential prognostic indicator and immunotherapy target of CC.

Role of IL-1β rs1143634 (+3954C>T) polymorphism in cancer risk: an updated meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis

OBJECTIVE

Oxidative stress caused by the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-1β has been widely investigated for cancer risk. In this study, we focused on the role of IL-1β rs1143634 polymorphism to reveal its impact on cancer development.

METHODS

Related studies with fixed inclusion criteria were selected from electronic databases to May 2021. This meta-analysis was performed with odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Heterogeneity, publication bias and sensitivity analyses were also conducted. Trial sequential analysis (TSA) and in-silico gene expression analysis were performed.

RESULTS

Forty-four case-control studies involving 18,645 patients with cancer and 22,882 controls were included. We observed a significant association of this single nucleotide polymorphism with overall cancer risk in the codominant model 3 (1.13-fold), recessive model (1.14-fold) and allelic model (1.08-fold). Subgroup analysis revealed that rs1143634 elevated the risk of gastric cancer, breast cancer and multiple myeloma. In addition, Asian and mixed populations and hospital-based controls had a significantly higher risk of cancer development. TSA confirmed our findings.

CONCLUSION

Our meta-analysis revealed that the presence of IL-1β rs1143634 polymorphism increases the risk of cancer development. Among polymorphism carriers, the Asian population has a higher risk than other ethnic populations.This meta-analysis was registered retrospectively at INPLASY (https://inplasy.com/, INPLASY2021100044).

Association of RAD51 and XRCC2 Gene Polymorphisms with Cervical Cancer Risk in the Bangladeshi Women

Objective:

Alterations in common DNA repair genes (RAD51 and XRCC2) may lead to cervical cancer (CC) development. In the present study, we analyzed the association between RAD51 rs1801320 and XRCC2 rs3218536 polymorphisms and CC.

Methods:

Variants were selected based on their associations with some cancers in several ethnicities and the risk allele frequency (>0.05) in different populations. The variants were detected using the PCR-RFLP method. Adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were determined by logistic regression models.

Result:

Significantly increased risk (p<0.05) were detected for both SNPs with CC (rs1801320- GC vs. GG: aOR=2.21, 95% CI=1.43-3.42; CC vs. GG: aOR=4.48, 95% CI=1.76-11.42; dominant model: aOR=2.49, 95% CI=1.65-3.76; recessive model: aOR=3.52, 95% CI=1.40-8.88; allele model: OR=2.30, 95% CI=1.63-3.26, and rs3218536- GA vs. GG: aOR=2.77, 95% CI=1.85-4.17; AA vs. GG: aOR=5.86, 95% CI=2.08-16.50; dominant model: aOR=2.97, 95% CI=1.99-4.42; recessive model: aOR=3.56, 95% CI=1.30-9.73; and allele model: aOR=2.21, 95% CI=1.62-3.00). Besides, older patients (>60 years) with rs1801320 showed significantly reduced risk (OR=0.53, 95% CI=0.29-0.96, p=0.04) but with rs3218536 depicted significantly increased risk (aOR=2.44, 95% CI=1.20-4.96, p=0.01) for CC.

Conclusion:

This study indicates an association of rs1801320 and rs3218536 polymorphisms with CC and confirms that patients older than 60 years are more likely to develop CC for rs3218536 polymorphism.