Prevalence of the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase 677C>T polymorphism in the pregnant women of Yunnan Province, China

More evidence for widespread antagonistic pleiotropy in polymorphic disease alleles

Introduction

Many loci segregate alleles classified as "genetic diseases" due to their deleterious effects on health. However, some disease alleles have been reported to show beneficial effects under certain conditions or in certain populations. The beneficial effects of these antagonistically pleiotropic alleles may explain their continued prevalence, but the degree to which antagonistic pleiotropy is common or rare is unresolved. We surveyed the medical literature to identify examples of antagonistic pleiotropy to help determine whether antagonistic pleiotropy appears to be rare or common.

Results

We identified ten examples of loci with polymorphisms for which the presence of antagonistic pleiotropy is well supported by detailed genetic or epidemiological information in humans. One additional locus was identified for which the supporting evidence comes from animal studies. These examples complement over 20 others reported in other reviews.

Discussion

The existence of more than 30 identified antagonistically pleiotropic human disease alleles suggests that this phenomenon may be widespread. This poses important implications for both our understanding of human evolutionary genetics and our approaches to clinical treatment and disease prevention, especially therapies based on genetic modification.

A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Intimacy Problems, Stress Levels, and Couple Satisfaction among Women with Thrombophilia Affected by Recurrent Pregnancy Loss

Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is one of the most challenging and difficult areas of reproductive treatment due to the immense emotional suffering inflicted on families and couples affected by RPL. As a result, it is predicted that couples experiencing recurrent pregnancy loss would have an increase in marital problems, stress levels, and anxiety, preventing them from achieving their family goals. The current cross-sectional study aimed to target pregnant women with thrombophilia with a history of RPL to observe their intimacy problems, stress levels, and couple satisfaction by completing a series of digital questionnaires. These patients were considered as the reference group, while the control group was formed by other women with thrombophilia and a history of RPL who eventually achieved pregnancy and gave birth. A total of 238 complete questionnaires were recorded (157 in the reference group and 81 in the control group). It was observed that women in the reference group who did not give birth had a significantly higher proportion of three or more pregnancy attempts (54.1% vs. 39.5%) and a significantly higher proportion of three more pregnancy losses (68.8% vs. 55.6%). It was observed that patients in the reference group were more likely to be emotion-oriented (42.7% vs. 27.2%). Also, women in the reference group had higher levels of dissatisfaction and lower levels of self-acceptance, pleasure, and marital quality scores. The total SII and DSCS scores were significantly lower than women with thrombophilia with a history of RPL who eventually gave birth. Women from the reference group had significantly greater intimacy problems and stress levels while having lower openness scores and self-esteem scores than women in the control group. It is possible that women with thrombophilia and recurrent pregnancy loss are more dissatisfied with their marriages than those who subsequently had one child. Since the financial status of those who achieved pregnancy was observed to be higher, it is likely that they achieved pregnancy by ART interventions, as they reported in questionnaires. It is important to target families afflicted by thrombophilia and other reasons for infertility to ease their access to ART therapies. By achieving their objectives, affected families will minimize dissatisfaction, divorce rates, and stress.

The combination of methylenehydrofolate reductase C677T polymorphism screening and gastrointestinal tumor markers detection may be an early screening method for gastrointestinal cancer related to helicobacter pylori infection

Methyltetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) is a key enzyme in folate metabolism, and its single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) site C677T may be associated with gastrointestinal cancer. However, the relationship between MTHFR C677T polymorphism and gastrointestinal tumor markers carcinoma embryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen 199 (CA199) and carbohydrate antigen 724 (CA724) in Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is not specified. This study aims to identify the association between MTHFR C677T polymorphism and gastrointestinal tumor markers (CEA, CA199 and CA724) in H. pylori infection. The relationship between MTHFR C677T polymorphism and gastrointestinal tumor markers in 58 patients with H. pylori infection and 94 non-infected patients was studied. We found that TT genotype was a susceptibility factor of H. pylori infection, which was also associated with increased CEA and CA724 levels. Moreover, there was a negative additive interaction between MTHFR gene C677T polymorphism and CEA levels in H.pylori infection. Meanwhile, there were significant differences in CEA levels between MTHFR C677T polymorphism and H.pylori infection. The presence of T allele led to a decrease in CEA levels when ¹³C urea breath test (¹³C-UBT) was positive, while the presence of T allele led to an increase in CEA levels when ¹³C-UBT was negative. Therefore, we suggest that healthy people should take MTHFR C677T polymorphism screening, combined with ¹³C-UBT and gastrointestinal tumor markers detection, which can screen out the susceptible population of H. pylori, and help to detect gastrointestinal cancer in the early stage.

The association between 5, 10 - methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase and the risk of unexplained recurrent pregnancy loss in China: A Meta-analysis

BACKGROUD

To analyze the correlation between gene polymorphisms of 5,10- methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) and risk of unexplained recurrent pregnancy loss (URPL) in Chinese women.

METHODS

Eligible studies were searched in Pubmed, Embase, Web of Science, Wanfang, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases. Established inclusion criteria were used to screening articles, subsequently evaluate the quality of the included studies, Stata 16.0 PM and RevMan 5.3 software were conducted for meta-analysis. The pooled odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was determined to assess the relationship between MTHFR and risk of URPL in Chinese women.

RESULTS

For MTHFR C677T, fifty studies were included, involving 6677 URPL cases and 8111 controls. The overall results showed that MTHFR C677T was significantly correlated with URPL risk, especially in the homozygous model (TT vs CC; OR 3.06; 95% CI 2.56-3.66). For MTHFR A1298C, twenty-first studies were included, involving 3439 URPL cases and 3155 controls. The results showed that MTHFR A1298C was also significantly correlated with URPL risk in recessive (CC vs AC + AA; OR 1.55; 95% CI 1.25-1.93) and homozygous (CC vs AA; OR 1.53; 95% CI 1.22-1.91) models. In addition, sub-group results showed that no significant difference between north and south China populations in the MTHFR gene polymorphisms and URPL risk. Of note, the patients carrying MTHFR C677T and MTHFR A1298C joint mutants had no synergistic effect (OR 2.71; 95% CI 0.84-8.70) on the occurrence of URPL compared with the wild-type homozygous genotype (MTHFR 677CC/ MTHFR 1298AA).

CONCLUSION

Studies included in this meta-analysis suggested that MTHFR 677T allele and 677TT genotype and MTHFR 1298CC genotype were both associated with URPL; testing MTHFR C677T gene polymorphism was a more appropriate target compared with other mutations in the prediction of URPL.