TLR4 regulatory region variants reduce the susceptibility of small-cell lung cancer in Chinese population

Abstract

Objectives 

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) participate in the induction and regulation of immune responses and are closely related to the occurrence and development of small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). This study aimed to investigate the impact of polymorphisms in the regulatory regions of TLRs on the susceptibility of SCLC.

Methods 

The case–control study included 304 SCLC patients and 304 healthy controls. TLRs gene polymorphisms were genotyped by PCR-restrictive fragment length polymorphism analysis and TaqMan assay. Unconditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratio (OR) and its 95% confidence interval (95% CI).

Results 

Our results showed that TLR4 rs1927914 GG genotype and TLR4 rs7869402 TT genotype reduced the risk of SCLC with OR (95% CI) of 0.54 (0.32–0.90) and 0.47 (0.28–0.80), respectively. Stratified analysis suggested that TLR4 rs1927914 GG genotypes significantly reduced the risk of SCLC among male (OR = 0.35; 95% CI, 0.18–0.69; P < 0.01), the younger patients (OR = 0.49; 95% CI, 0.26–0.94; P = 0.03) and non-drinkers (OR = 0.47; 95% CI, 0.24–0.89; P = 0.02). TLR4 rs7869402 CT or TT genotype significantly reduced the susceptibility to SCLC among male patients (OR = 0.37; 95% CI, 0.19–0.71, P < 0.01), the younger patients (OR = 0.41; 95% CI, 0.22–0.79; P < 0.01), smokers (OR = 0.25; 95% CI, 0.10–0.60; P < 0.01) and drinkers (OR = 0.31; 95% CI, 0.11–0.88; P = 0.03). TLR3 rs5743303, TLR4 rs11536891, TLR5 rs1640816 and TLR7 rs3853839 had no significant correlation with the risk of SCLC.

Conclusions 

These findings emphasized the important role of TLR4 in the development of SCLC.