Abstract
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection can become chronic and if left untreated can progress to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Thailand is endemic for HBV and HCC is one of the top five cancers, causing deaths among Thai HBV-infected males. A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) at the KIF1B gene locus, rs17401966, has been shown to be strongly associated with the development of HBV-related HCC. However, there are no Thai data on genotypic distribution and allele frequencies of rs17401966. Thai HBV patients seropositive for HBsAg (n=398) were therefore divided into two groups: a case group (chronic HBV with HCC; n=202) and a control group (HBV carriers without HCC; n=196). rs17401966 was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and analyzed by direct nucleotide sequencing. The genotypic distribution of rs174019660 for homozygous major genotype (AA), heterozygous minor genotype (AG) and homozygous minor genotype (GG) in the case group was 49.5% (n=100), 40.1% (n=81) and 10.4% (n=21), respectively, and in controls was 49.5% (n=97), 42.3% (n=83) and 8.2% (n=16). Binary logistic regression showed that rs17401966 was not statistically associated with the risk of HCC development in Thai chronic HBV patients (p-value=0.998, OR=1.00 and 95% CI=0.68-1.48). In conclusion, the KIF1B gene SNP (rs174019660) investigated in this study showed no significant association with HBV-related HCC in Thai patients infected with HBV, indicating that there must be other mechanisms or pathways involved in the development of HCC.
Highlights
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a major public health problem worldwide
Thai HBV patients seropositive for HBsAg (n=398) were divided into two groups: a case group and a control group (HBV carriers without hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); n=196). rs17401966 was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and analyzed by direct nucleotide sequencing
Binary logistic regression showed that rs17401966 was not statistically associated with the risk of HCC development in Thai chronic HBV patients (p-value=0.998, OR=1.00 and 95% CI=0.68-1.48)
Summary
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a major public health problem worldwide. In untreated chronic patients, HBV infection can cause liver cirrhosis and can progress to Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) (Wong et al, 2006). A genome-wide association study (GWAS) conducted in 5 different locations in China discovered that a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) known as rs17401966 was strongly associated with the development of HCC among chronic HBV patients (Zhang et al, 2010) This SNP is located within the 24th intron of the kinesin family member 1B (KIF1B) gene on human chromosome 1p36.22. Two other studies involving Koreans, Japanese, Hong Kong Chinese and Saudi Arabians (Al-Qahtani et al, 2012; Sawai et al, 2012) showed that there was no significant association between rs1740966 and the development of HBV-related HCC It is unclear why two separate studies conducted in China showed different results. The information obtained from this study will help with the management of surveillance programs of HBV-related HCC patients
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