Nucleotide variation in ATG4A and susceptibility to cervical cancer in Southwestern Chinese women

Early detection of human papillomavirus (HPV) is important for the clinical diagnosis of cervical cancer. However, to date, the pathogenesis of cervical cancer is still unclear. Autophagy is a dynamic process that contributes to the maintenance of cellular homeostasis. Here, we investigate whether variants of autophagy genes affect the occurrence of cervical cancer. In this study, our results indicate that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of autophagy-related protein 4 (ATG4), including rs4036579, rs5973822, rs807181, rs807182 and rs807183, have a significant relationship with cervical cancer risk. Furthermore, stratified analysis suggests that the homozygous variant genotype could decrease the risk of cervical cancer and should be considered when investigating the role of HPV in cervical cancer. We aim to investigate whether SNPs of ATG4A contribute to HPV infection in the population of Southwestern China. The association of both single SNPs and SNP-SNP interactions with HPV was evaluated in a sample of cancer cases and healthy control subjects. The interaction of rs807181 and rs807183 was associated with HPV infection in case and control subjects (combined P=2.00×10(−3) and 3.22×10(−2), respectively). This result showed that ATG4A SNP interactions may affect HPV infection in the population of Southwestern China. Notably, the autophagy gene ATG4A may contribute to cervical cancer.