Background/aim: Prostate cancer (PCa) shows disproportionately higher incidence and disease-associated mortality in African Americans. The human crystallin beta B2 (CRYBB2) gene has been reported as one tumor signature gene differentially expressed between African American and European American cancer patients. We investigated the role of CRYBB2 genetic variants in PCa in African Americans.
Materials and methods: Subjects comprised of 233 PCa cases and 294 controls. Nine haplotype-tagged single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in and around the CRYBB2 gene were genotyped by pyrosequencing. Association analyses were performed for PCa with adjustment for age and prostate-specific antigen (PSA), under an additive genetic model.
Results: Out of the nine SNPs examined, rs9608380 was found to be nominally associated with PCa (odds ratio (OR)=2.619 (95% confidence interval (CI)=1.156-5.935), p=0.021). rs9306412 was in strong linkage disequilibrium with rs9608380 that showed an association p-value of 0.077. Using ENCODE data, we found rs9608380 mapped to a region annotated with regulatory motifs, such as DNase hypersensitive sites and histone modifications.
Conclusion: This is the first study to analyze the association between genetic variations in the CRYBB2 gene with PCa. rs9608380, associated with PCa, is a potentially functional variant.
Keywords: African Americans; CRYBB2; Prostate cancer; genetic association; single nucleotide polymorphism.
Copyright© 2015 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved.