ssociation of Codon 72 of P53 Gene Polymorphism with Chronic Hepatitis CVirus Infection: A Case Control Study

Single nucleotide polymorphism in codon 72 of p53 gene (Arg/Pro) changes p53 protein structure and affects itsactivities. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is believed to induce hepatocellular carcinoma and P53 polymorphisms have beenassociated with human cancers. The aim of this study was to evaluate genetic variants of codon 72 of p53 genepolymorphism in HCV patients and its relationship with HCV infection. The study was conducted on 67 HCVpatients, who were referred to medical centers of Mashhad city, Iran, and 73 healthy people from the same region.Genotyping of codon 72 of p53 gene was performed by PCR-RFLP method. The distributions of different alleles ofp53 polymorphisms did not differ significantly between groups. The respective proportions of Proline homozygotes,heterozygotes, and Arginine homozygotes were 37.31%, 35.82%, 26.86% in patients and 39.72%, 27.39%, and32.87% in the control group respectively. However, we found no significant differenece for the allelic or genotypedistribution between cases and controls. Our results indicated no strong evidence of association of the p53polymorphism with HCV infection; however, further investigation is needed in different ethnic groups to elucidatethe role of this polymorphism in HCV infection.

Keywords:

Polymorphism , P53 gene , HCV , Genetic epidemiology , Iran