A study of the role of DIO1 and DIO2 polymorphism in thyroid cancer and drug response to therapy in the Saudi population

BACKGROUND: Deiodinases comprise a group of selenoproteins that regulate the bioavailability of active thyroid hormones (TH) in a time and tissue specific fashion. They increase the hormonal activity by metabolizing their inactive precursors to active forms or terminate their activity by deactivating active hormones. The role of the deiodinase (DIO) gene polymorphisms in thyroid cancer is not fully understood yet. This study evaluated the potential association of the DIO1 and DIO2 genes with differentiated thyroid cancer and differential thyroxine dose requirement in thyroidectomized patients in a Saudi cohort. METHODS: We selected four variants (one DIO1 and three DIO2) for the association studies using Taqman assays in 507 DTC patients undergoing treatment with thyroxin against 560 disease-free individual, all of Saudi Arab origin. RESULTS: None of the studied variants was linked to differentiated thyroid cancer. The rs1388378_G > T was initially linked to thyroxine dose requirement (p = 0.035) when all patients were considered together, but this association was lost when the patients were classified into either near suppressed (0.1 ≤ TSH < 0.5) or suppressed (TSH < 0.1) TSH group. DISCUSSION: Although the results suggest only a weak relationship with differentiated thyroid cancer, they strongly indicate that the DIO2 polymorphism influences the hormonal dose requirement in patients undergoing treatment with thyroxine. This probably points to a distinction in the way this gene influences disease as compared to therapy thereof.