TP53 R72P Polymorphism and Susceptibility to Human Papillomavirus Infection Among Women With Human Immunodeficiency Virus in Morocco: A Case-control Study

Elevated serum expression of p53 and association of TP53 codon 72 polymorphisms with risk of cervical cancer in Bangladeshi women

Differential expression of p53 has been reported in cervical cancer, primarily in tumor tissue biopsies. In this study, we examined the association of TP53 codon 47 and codon 72 polymorphisms and serum level expression of p53 in cervical cancer patients (n = 129) and healthy controls (n = 122). We found elevated levels of serum p53 protein levels in cervical cancer patients (p = 0.0442) compared to healthy controls. Moreover, we found higher levels of serum p53 in patients with grade-III tumor (p = 0.001) compared to healthy controls. Examination of SNPs showed TP53 Arg/Pro heterozygosity (adjusted OR = 2.126, 95% CI = 1.181-3.827, p = 0.012), Pro/Pro mutant homozygosity (adjusted OR = 3.564, 95% CI = 1.647-7.713, p = 0.001), along with the combined genotype (Arg/Pro+Pro/Pro) (adjusted OR 2.542, 95% CI = 1.517-4.260, p<0.001) significantly increases the risk of cervical cancer. Expression quantitative trait analysis revealed no significant association with protein expression. Our results represent for the first time the upregulation of serum p53 in cervical cancer in Bangladeshi women and supports the association of TP53 codon 72 polymorphisms with cervical cancer.

A Review of Cancer Genetics and Genomics Studies in Africa

Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally and is projected to overtake infectious disease as the leading cause of mortality in Africa within the next two decades. Cancer is a group of genomic diseases that presents with intra- and inter-population unique phenotypes, with Black populations having the burden of morbidity and mortality for most types. At large, the prevention and treatment of cancers have been propelled by the understanding of the genetic make-up of the disease of mostly non-African populations. By the same token, there is a wide knowledge gap in understanding the underlying genetic causes of, and genomic alterations associated with, cancer among black Africans. Accordingly, we performed a review of the literature to survey existing studies on cancer genetics/genomics and curated findings pertaining to publications across multiple cancer types conducted on African populations. We used PubMed MeSH terms to retrieve the relevant publications from 1990 to December 2019. The metadata of these publications were extracted using R text mining packages: RISmed and Pubmed.mineR. The data showed that only 0.329% of cancer publications globally were on Africa, and only 0.016% were on cancer genetics/genomics from Africa. Although the most prevalent cancers in Africa are cancers of the breast, cervix, uterus, and prostate, publications representing breast, colorectal, liver, and blood cancers were the most frequent in our review. The most frequently reported cancer genes were BRCA1, BRCA2, and TP53. Next, the genes reported in the reviewed publications’ abstracts were extracted and annotated into three gene ontology classes. Genes in the cellular component class were mostly associated with cell part and organelle part, while those in biological process and molecular function classes were mainly associated with cell process, biological regulation, and binding, and catalytic activity, respectively. Overall, this review highlights the paucity of research on cancer genomics on African populations, identified gaps, and discussed the need for concerted efforts to encourage more research on cancer genomics in Africa.

TP53 genetic polymorphisms and susceptibility to cervical cancer in Bangladeshi women: a case-control study

Pharmacogenetic study of TP53 gene polymorphisms has not been conducted extensively in cervical cancer. The aim of this study was to assesses the TP53 codon 72 and codon 47 polymorphisms and their relation to cervical cancer risk in Bangladeshi women. 134 cervical cancer patients and 102 age matched healthy controls were included from two institutions in Bangladesh. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method was used for genotyping two TP53 single nucleotide polymorphisms (codon 72 and codon 47) in patients and controls. The results indicate that the TP53 Arg/Pro heterozygosity (adjusted OR   2.32, 95% CI  1.28-4.34, p = 0.01), Pro/Pro mutant homozygosity (adjusted OR  4.15, 95% CI  1.75-9.86, p = 0.001), along with the combined genotype (Arg/Pro + Pro/Pro) (adjusted OR  2.83, 95% CI  1.61-4.97, p < 0.001) significantly increases the risk of cervical cancer. Moreover, the cervical cancer patients with a first-degree relative cancer patient possesses 4.45 folds more risk (p = 0.019) of carrying a proline allele in codon 72 of the TP53 gene compared to those patients who do not have any first-degree relative with cancer. Finally, polymorphism in the codon 47 of the TP53 gene did not significantly increase the risk of cervical cancer in Bangladeshi women. To conclude, this is the first study to identify that polymorphism in the TP53 codon 72 significantly increases the risk of cervical cancer in a female population in Bangladesh.

Lack of Association between IFNL3 Polymorphism and Human Papillomavirus Infection and Their Progression in HIV-Infected Women Receiving Antiretroviral Treatment

BACKGROUND

It has been reported that interferon-λ3 (IFNL3)might influence the pathogenesis and clearance of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. The impact of IFNL3 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) on HPV infection is currently unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between variants in the IFNL3 region and HPV infection in women with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.

METHODS

A total of 236 HIV patients, including 65 HPV-negative and 171 HPV DNA-positive women, were enrolled into this study. The IFNL3 rs12979860 polymorphism was genotyped using a predesigned TaqMan SNP genotyping assay.

RESULTS

Data showed no significant differences in genotypes or allele frequencies between the HPV DNA-positive and the HPV-negative women (p > 0.05). After dividing the HPV-positive women according to cytology results into patients with abnormal and normal lesions, the genotype and allele distribution of the SNP did not significantly differ between the 2 groups (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Our results showed that the IFNL3 rs12979860 polymorphism is not a major determinant of the susceptibility to HPV infection and their progression to abnormal cervical lesions in women living with HIV.