Influences of two significant variants located in the ST6GAL1 3′-untranslated region on lung carcinoma susceptibility in the Chinese Han population

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify the associations of the ST6GAL1 gene 3′-untranslated region polymorphisms with lung carcinoma risk in a Chinese Han population. Three single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; rs1042757, rs2284749, and rs2239611) in ST6GAL1 were genotyped in 322 lung carcinoma patients and 384 healthy controls. The relationships between these variants and lung cancer risk were examined by logistic regression analysis. Stratified analysis was conducted to detect the influence of these SNPs on lung carcinoma susceptibility among individuals aged younger or older than 50 years. In addition, bioinformatics analysis predicted the potential microRNAs that target the region containing the selected SNPs. We determined rs2284749 in the ST6GAL1 gene that was associated with a decreased risk of lung cancer in the Chinese Han population, based on the recessive model (odds ratio: 0.66; 95% confidence interval: 0.44–0.99, P = 0.045). Among individuals older than 50 years, we observed a protective effect of rs2284749 in the recessive model (P = 0.020) and log-additive model (P = 0.045), and rs2239611 associated with the decreased lung cancer risk under codominant (P = 0.037), dominant (P = 0.010), overdominant (P = 0.026) and log-additive (P = 0.015) models. Furthermore, bioinformatics analyses revealed distinct roles for rs2284749 and rs2239611 in the microRNA targeting sites. These findings suggested that rs2284749 and rs2239611 in the ST6GAL1 gene are associated with lung carcinoma risk in the Chinese Han population. Our results yield new insights into ST6GAL1 in lung cancer development.