Genetic variants in the MicroRNA biosynthetic pathway Gemin3 and Gemin4 are associated with a risk of cancer: a meta-analysis

Wenbo Zhu; Jun Zhao; Jieyu He; Daxun Qi; Lina Wang; Xu Ma; Pei Liu

doi:10.7717/peerj.1724

Genetic variants in the MicroRNA biosynthetic pathway Gemin3 and Gemin4 are associated with a risk of cancer: a meta-analysis

PeerJ. 2016 Mar 15:4:e1724. doi: 10.7717/peerj.1724. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Wenbo Zhu¹, Jun Zhao², Jieyu He¹, Daxun Qi², Lina Wang¹, Xu Ma², Pei Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ Public Health, Southeast University , Nanjing, Jiangsu , China.
² National Research Institute for Family Planning, National Research Institute for Family Planning , Beijing , China.

Abstract

The effects of the microRNA (miRNA) processing genes Gemin3 and Gemin4 on cellular signaling pathways could have a major impact on the risk of cancer. Several studies concerning the association between the Gemin3 rs197412, Gemin4 rs7813 and Gemin4 rs2740348 polymorphisms with cancer susceptibility have been published. The present meta-analysis summarized this evidence and evaluated the precision of these relationships. Relevant studies (published prior to December 16th, 2015) without language restriction were identified using the PubMed, Web of Science and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) on-line databases. The data were extracted from the eligible studies and were processed using Stata 12.0 software. Seven studies (2,588 cases and 2,549 controls) indicated that the rs7813 polymorphism was significantly associated with increased cancer risk (TT vs TC + CC, OR = 1.18 95% CI [1.05-1.32]). Six studies (1,314 cases and 1,244 controls) indicated that rs2740348 was associated with an increased cancer risk (GG vs. GC + CC, OR = 1.41 95% CI [1.00-1.83]). However the rs197412 polymorphism was not associated with an increased cancer risk (OR = 0.97 95% CI [0.80-1.19]). Our results suggest that the Gemin4 rs7813 T > C and rs2740348 G > C polymorphisms are associated with cancer susceptibility.

Keywords: Cancer; Gemin3; Gemin4; MicroRNA biosynthetic pathway.

Grants and funding

Our funding comes from “National Scientific Data Sharing Platform for Population and Health.” The institution is National Research Institute for Family Planning (China) and the author Xun Ma has received the funding. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.