Association of ADH1B Arg47His and ALDH2 Glu487Lys polymorphisms with risk of colorectal cancer and their interaction with environmental factors in a Chinese population

ALDH2 gene rs671 G > a polymorphism and the risk of colorectal cancer: A hospital-based study

BACKGROUND

The susceptibility to some cancers is linked to genetic factors, such as aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) polymorphisms. The relationship between ALDH2 rs671 and colorectal cancer (CRC) is not clear in Hakka population.

METHODS

Between October 2015 and December 2020, a total of 178 CRC patients and 261 controls were recruited. ALDH2 rs671 was genotyped in these subjects, medical records (smoking history, drinking history and blood cell parameters) were collected, and the relationship between these information and CRC was analyzed.

RESULTS

The proportion of the ALDH2 rs671 G/G, G/A, and A/A genotype was 48.3%, 44.4%, and 7.3% in patients; 62.1%, 34.1%, and 3.8% in controls, respectively. The difference of ALDH2 genotypes distribution between cases and controls was statistically significant (p = 0.011). The higher percentage of smokers and alcoholics, higher level of neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet count, and platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and lower level of lymphocyte count, lymphocyte to monocyte ratio (LMR), and mean hemoglobin concentration were observed in patients. Logistic regression analysis indicated that ALDH2 rs671 G/A genotype (G/A vs. G/G) (adjusted OR 1.801, 95% CI 1.160-2.794, p = 0.009) and A/A genotype (A/A vs. G/G) (adjusted OR 2.630, 95% CI 1.041-6.645, p = 0.041) in the co-dominant model, while G/A + A/A genotypes (G/A + A/A vs. G/G) (adjusted OR 1.883, 95% CI 1.230-2.881, p = 0.004) in the dominant model were risk factors for CRC.

CONCLUSIONS

Individuals carrying ALDH2 rs671 A allele (G/A, A/A genotypes) may be at increased risk of colorectal cancer.

ALDH3B2 Polymorphism Is Associated with Colorectal Cancer Susceptibility

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the 5^th leading cancer in China. Alcohol consumption has been reported to be one of the risk factors of CRC. However, it remains unclear whether genetic variants of alcohol metabolic genes are associated with CRC risk. In this study, we tested the coding variants in the alcohol metabolic genes and the risk of CRC, by using 485 cases and 516 controls. A total of 16 germline coding variants in 10 alcohol metabolic genes were genotyped. We identified that rs3741178 in ALDH3B2 was significantly associated with CRC risk with odds ratio being 2.13 (95% CI: 1.24–3.68, P=0.0064). Further functional annotation suggested that this variant may damage the protein function of ALDH3B2. Our results suggested that ALDH3B2 in the alcohol metabolism pathway contributed to the development of CRC, which may contribute to the prevention of this disease in the future.

Association of ADH1B Arg47His polymorphism with the risk of cancer: a meta-analysis

Alcohol consumption has been established to be a major factor in the development and progress of cancer. Genetic polymorphisms of alcohol-metabolism genes result in differences between individuals in exposure to acetaldehyde, leading to possible carcinogenic effects. Arg47His (rs1229984 G > A) in ADH1B have been frequently studied for its potential effect on carcinogenesis. However, the findings are as yet inconclusive. To gain a more precise estimate of this potential association, we conducted a meta-analysis including 66 studies from 64 articles with 31999 cases and 50964 controls. The pooled results indicated that ADH1B Arg47His polymorphism is significantly associated with the decreased risk of overall cancer (homozygous model, odds ratio (OR) = 0.62, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.49–0.77; heterozygous model, OR = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.60–0.84; recessive model, OR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.76–0.91; dominant model, OR = 0.62, 95% CI = 0.53–0.72; and allele comparison, OR = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.75–0.89). Stratified analysis by cancer type and ethnicity showed that a decreased risk was associated with esophageal cancer and head and neck cancer amongst Asians. In conclusion, our meta-analysis suggested that ADH1B Arg47His polymorphism was significantly associated with decreased overall cancer risk. These findings need further validation in large multicenter investigations.

Effect of ALDH2 polymorphism on cancer risk in Asians: A meta-analysis

Numerous studies have investigated the association between ALDH2 gene rs671G>A polymorphism and various cancer type in Asians. However, the results remain inconclusive.We conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis including 63 articles with 66 studies containing 25,682 cases and 47,455 controls retrieved by searching PubMed and Embase electronic databases up to March 5, 2018.Pooled results indicated that ALDH2 gene rs671 polymorphism was significantly associated with the overall cancer risk in Asians (homozygous model: odds ratio [OR] = 0.85, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.72-0.99, P = .042; heterozygous model: OR = 1.32, 95% CI = 1.14-1.52, P  < .001; recessive model: OR = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.60-0.88, P = .001; dominant model: OR = 1.32, 95% CI = 1.16-1.51, P < .001; and allele comparison model: OR = 1.11, 95% CI = 1.03-1.19, P = .004), especially in esophageal cancer and among the Chinese and the Japanese.Our results suggest that ALDH2 rs671 polymorphism is associated with the overall cancer risk in Asians. Well-designed prospective studies with more information about gene-environment interaction, such as drinking, should be conducted to validate our findings.

Association of microRNA-423 rs6505162 C>A polymorphism with susceptibility and metastasis of colorectal carcinoma

Studies have evaluated the association between the SNP miRNA-423 rs6505162 C>A and cancer risk in several cancers with contradictory outcomes. It was reported that miRNA-423 rs6505162 C>A polymorphism was associated with the overall survival and the recurrence-free survival of colorectal carcinoma. However, no studies have reported the association between miRNA-423 rs6505162 C>A polymorphism and susceptibility of colorectal carcinoma.In this study, we investigated the association between miRNA-423 polymorphism with risk and clinicopathological parameters of colorectal carcinoma. The polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method was used to genotype 117 colorectal carcinoma patients and 84 healthy controls.Our data indicated the frequencies of rs6505162 genotypes and alleles were significantly different between colorectal carcinoma patients and controls. Compared with CC homozygote, the AC heterozygote exhibited a significantly decreased risk of colorectal carcinoma; and the combination of AC and AA genotype was associated with decreased risk of colorectal carcinoma. The allele distribution of rs6505162 was significantly different between cases and controls. Furthermore, miR-423 rs6505162 C>A genotype showed a significant association with metastasis in patients (P = .022).Our study suggested that miR-423 rs6505162 C>A polymorphism was associated with the susceptibility and metastasis of colorectal carcinoma, and that miR-423 rs6505162 C>A polymorphism might be a potential biomarker for colorectal carcinoma.

"Gestaltomics": Systems Biology Schemes for the Study of Neuropsychiatric Diseases

The integration of different sources of biological information about what defines a behavioral phenotype is difficult to unify in an entity that reflects the arithmetic sum of its individual parts. In this sense, the challenge of Systems Biology for understanding the “psychiatric phenotype” is to provide an improved vision of the shape of the phenotype as it is visualized by “Gestalt” psychology, whose fundamental axiom is that the observed phenotype (behavior or mental disorder) will be the result of the integrative composition of every part. Therefore, we propose the term “Gestaltomics” as a term from Systems Biology to integrate data coming from different sources of information (such as the genome, transcriptome, proteome, epigenome, metabolome, phenome, and microbiome). In addition to this biological complexity, the mind is integrated through multiple brain functions that receive and process complex information through channels and perception networks (i.e., sight, ear, smell, memory, and attention) that in turn are programmed by genes and influenced by environmental processes (epigenetic). Today, the approach of medical research in human diseases is to isolate one disease for study; however, the presence of an additional disease (co-morbidity) or more than one disease (multimorbidity) adds complexity to the study of these conditions. This review will present the challenge of integrating psychiatric disorders at different levels of information (Gestaltomics). The implications of increasing the level of complexity, for example, studying the co-morbidity with another disease such as cancer, will also be discussed.