The protective role of rs56103835 against breast cancer onset in the Iranian population

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer among women and the highest cause of death due to cancer among women aged 40–45. SNPs can be used to identify disease‐related genes such as cancer as they can be genetic markers. Furthermore, SNPs in the molecular‐level miRNA structure are also associated with a set of cancers. Studies have shown that miR‐323b plays a tumor suppressor role by reducing the tissues and serum of the affected individuals. So far, no study regarding rs56103835 polymorphism in the precursor of miR‐323b has been conducted in the breast cancer. In this study, the association of this SNP with the incidence of breast cancer in the Iranian population has been investigated. METHOD: In order to correlate rs56103835 polymorphism with breast cancer, 161 patients and 162 healthy people as the control group were examined. They had been homogenized based on their age and gender. The genotype of individuals for the polymorphism was determined by the PCR‐RFLP method. The association of this polymorphism with the risk of breast cancer, the age of the onset of disease, and pathological characteristics of the patients was then analyzed. RESULTS: The findings showed that there is no significant correlation between the frequency of its genotypes among the healthy and patient populations while the TT genotype increased the age of the disease in patients, as compared to other genotypes (p = 0.035, OR = 0.487). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The C allele is likely to inhibit the expression of BRCA2 by interfering with the processing of this pre‐miRNA and increasing the expression of target genes such as BRCA2. Because one of the early onset genes in breast cancer is the BRCA2, the presence of any of C and T alleles can have a significant effect on the incidence of the disease. To further confirm this data, however, more molecular studies are needed.