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Epistatic interactions between loci of one-carbon metabolism modulate susceptibility to breast cancer

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Abstract

In view of growing body of evidence substantiating the role of aberrations in one-carbon metabolism in the pathophysiology of breast cancer and lack of studies on gene–gene interactions, we investigated the role of dietary micronutrients and eight functional polymorphisms of one-carbon metabolism in modulating the breast cancer risk in 244 case–control pairs of Indian women and explored possible gene–gene interactions using Multifactor dimensionality reduction analysis (MDR). Dietary micronutrient status was assessed using the validated Food Frequency Questionnaire. Genotyping was done for glutamate carboxypeptidase II (GCPII) C1561T, reduced folate carrier (RFC)1 G80A, cytosolic serine hydroxymethyltransferase (cSHMT) C1420T, thymidylate synthase (TYMS) 5′-UTR tandem repeat, TYMS 3′-UTR ins6/del6, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T, methyltetrahydrofolate-homocysteine methyltransferase (MTR) A2756G, methyltetrahydrofolate-homocysteine methyltransferase reductase (MTRR) A66G polymorphisms by using the PCR-RFLP/AFLP methods. Low dietary folate intake (P < 0.001), RFC1 G80A (OR: 1.38, 95% CI 1.06–1.81) and MTHFR C677T (OR: 1.74 (1.11–2.73) were independently associated with the breast cancer risk whereas cSHMT C1420T conferred protection (OR: 0.72, 95% CI 0.55–0.94). MDR analysis demonstrated a significant tri-variate interaction among RFC1 80, MTHFR 677 and TYMS 5′-UTR loci (P trend < 0.02) with high-risk genotype combination showing inflated risk for breast cancer (OR 4.65, 95% CI 1.77–12.24). To conclude, dietary as well as genetic factors were found to influence susceptibility to breast cancer. Further, the current study highlighted the importance of multi-loci analyses over the single-locus analysis towards establishing the epistatic interactions between loci of one-carbon metabolism modulate susceptibility to the breast cancer.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the grant funded by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi (Ref No. 5/13/32/2007). We thank Miss Y. Rupasree, Mrs. S.V. Vijaya Lakshmi, Miss P. Shree Divyya and Mr. E. Chandra Sekhar for providing technical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, Panjagutta, Hyderabad, 500082, Andhra Pradesh, India

    Shaik Mohammad Naushad, Addepalli Pavani & Vijay Kumar Kutala

  2. Department of Medical Oncology, Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, Panjagutta, Hyderabad, 500082, India

    Raghunadha Rao Digumarti

  3. Department of Surgical Oncology, Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, Panjagutta, Hyderabad, 500082, India

    Suryanarayana Raju Gottumukkala

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  1. Shaik Mohammad Naushad
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Correspondence to Vijay Kumar Kutala.

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Naushad, S.M., Pavani, A., Digumarti, R.R. et al. Epistatic interactions between loci of one-carbon metabolism modulate susceptibility to breast cancer. Mol Biol Rep 38, 4893–4901 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-010-0631-z

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