Associação dos Genes IL-10 e TNF-α com a susceptibilidade às doenças cervicais

Abstract

Cervical cancer (CC) is a disease that affects approximately 1.5 million women in the world and has as a causing agent the human papillomavirus (HPV). Proteins associated with the immune response are essential for viral elimination. However, variations in their genes, such as IL-10 [(A-1082G) (rs1800896)] and TNF-α [(G-308A) (rs1800629)] may predispose individuals to various diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, AIDS, as well as some forms of cancer. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the possible association of the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the regions rs1800896 and rs1800629 with the predisposition to develop cervical squamous intraepithelial lesions and cervical adenocarcinoma. In addition, we wanted to match them with sociodemographic profiles and different habits of the patients. We used DNA samples from 240 women with HPV infection (168 vaginal secretion samples and 72 paraffin-embedded samples) and 169 healthy control DNA samples (HPV negative). Analysis of each polymorphism was performed by ARMS-PCR. Our results showed a positive association of the polymorphism rs1800896 of the IL-10 gene with susceptibility to develop cervical disease (p < 0.05). However, there was no association in relation to the polymorphism rs1800629 on the TNF-α gene (p > 0.05). On the other hand, for the latter SNP, a positive correlation was found for the following characteristics: age > 35 years, early age of first sexual intercourse, use of oral contraceptive, smoking, African ancestry and co-infection by Chlamydia trachomatis (p < 0.05). Our study showed that the IL-10 and TNF-α genes are strong candidates to be used as molecular biomarkers in the preventive screening of patients susceptible to cervical disease in the study population.