Prognostic Impact of Telomere Maintenance Gene Polymorphisms on Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C

Abstract

AbstractBackground: Telomere length and telomerase activity are crucial for cancer initiation and the survival of tumors. Tel-omere length is maintained by telomerase in 90% of human cancers, while 10% of cancers use an alternative mechanism of telomere lengthening termed (ALT). Another mechanism for Cancer cells is through activating or up-regulating the normally silent human TERT gene (hTERT) that encodes telomerase.Aim of Study: The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of a SNP in TERT gene rs13167280 on telomere length, furthermore, a study was conducted to investigate whether the changes of median values of Relative Telomere Length (RTL) is related to a SNP genotype.Patients and Methods: The study was conducted on a total number of 100 patients, subdivided into two groups HCC and HCV groups. SNP was measuring using Taqman probe on step-one real time PCR.Results: It was found that HCC patients had high frequency of heterozygous AG genotype than HCV patients 30% versus 22% and both groups had no homozygous AA genotype. Moreover, the frequency of G allele comparing to A allele in SNP rs13167280 was higher in HCV than HCC 90% versus 85% respectively.Conclusion: There was no statistical significant difference observed on comparing a SNP rs13167280 in HCC and HCV groups and there was no statistically significant association was found (p=0.34) when we investigated whether the changes of median values of RTL is related to a SNP genotype.