Association Of The MicroRNA-499Variants With Susceptibilityto Hepatocellular Carcinomain The Southwest-china Population

Objective: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a new class of smallnon-coding RNAs. They are involved in cancer initiation and progressionas tumor suppressors or oncogenes. Asingle nucleotide change in thesequence of a target site can lead to genetic variations. Single nucleotidepolymorphisms (SNPs) of the miRNAcould be associated with the risk ofhepatitis B virus (HBV)–related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Methods: In this study, a total of300subjects from the southwest ofChina were enrolled, including100patients with HCC (73cases with HBVand27cases without HBV),100cases of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and100health adults. Two common polymorphisms: miRNA-146a (rs291016)and miRNA-499(rs3746444) were genotyped by PCR-RestrictionFragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and confirmed bybidirectional DNAsequencing.Results: Significant differences were found in frequency anddistribution of the genotypes of miRNA-499between the HCC and the control group. Compared with miRNA-499T/T, the odds ratio (OR) ofpatients with miRNA-499C/C for developing HCC was3.630(95%CI:1.545-8.532), and OR for developing HBV–related HCC was3.133(95%CI:1.248-7.861). There was no significant association betweenmiRNA-146a polymorphism and the risk of HCC in all subjects.Conclusion: Genetic polymorphisms of miRNA-499were associatedwith the susceptibility to HBV-related HCC. MiRNA SNPs may open newavenue for the study of cancer and therapeutic interventions.