Abstract
BackgroundResearchers have provided evidence that telomere dysfunction play an important role in cancer development. MNS16A is a polymorphic tandem repeats minisatellite of human telomerase (hTERT) gene that influences promoter activity of hTERT and thus implicates to relate with risk of several malignancies. However, results on association between MNS16A and cancer risk remain controversial. We therefore conduct a meta-analysis to derive a more precise estimation of association between MNS16A and cancer risk.MethodsA systematic literature search was conducted by searching PubMed, ISI Web of Knowledge, Human Genome and Epidemiology Network Navigator and Google Scholar digital database for publications on associations between MNS16A and cancer risk. Variants with statistically significant associations by meta-analysis were assessed using Venice criteria.Results10 case-control articles enrolling 6101 cases and 10521 controls were brought into our meta-analysis. The relationships were strong epidemiological credibility in cerebral cancer and breast cancer population (P for heterogeneity > 0.1). The cumulative analysis in chronologic order suggested a clear tendency towards a significant association with additional study samples.ConclusionsThe results provided a more accurate depiction of the role of MNS16A in cerebral cancer and breast cancer susceptibility. Additional larger studies were warranted to validate our findings.
Highlights
Telomeres are crucial for genomic stability [1,2,3,4,5]
The variants containing short tandem repeats (S allele) have stronger promoter activity than long repeats (L allele), indicating number of tandem repeats associated with lung cancer risk
Considering the important role of MNS16A in promoter activity of Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) gene, we conduct a metaanalysis on eligible articles to estimate association of MNS16A with cancer risk
Summary
Telomeres (a distinctive DNA-protein structure at the distal end of eukaryotic chromosomes) are crucial for genomic stability [1,2,3,4,5]. MNS16A, a polymorphic tandem repeats minisatellite in downstream of hTERT gene, has been first reported to affect promoter activity in lung cancer cell lines [14]. The variants containing short tandem repeats (S allele) have stronger promoter activity than long repeats (L allele), indicating number of tandem repeats associated with lung cancer risk. Several malignancies such as cerebral [15,16], lung [17,18], breast [19,20], colorectal [21], nasopharyngeal [22], prostate cancer [23] and one meta-analysis [24] had investigated MNS16A in the etiology of cancer but with inconsistent results. We conduct a meta-analysis to derive a more precise estimation of association between MNS16A and cancer risk
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