Abstract
Background:
Aberrant expression and structural alteration of miRNAs are considered to participate in cancer development. It has been suggested that common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in miRNAs are associated with susceptibility to several human diseases including colorectal cancer (CRC).
Methods:
A case-control study at 157 CRC patients and 299 healthy controls of Greek origin was undertaken in order to investigate the association between the genotype and allelic frequencies of three common SNPs (rs2910164, rs11614913 and rs3746444) in pre-miRNAs, miR-146a, miR-196a2 and miR-499.
Results:
The risk for CRC was significantly higher at the carriers of miR-146a rs2910164 CC genotype and C allele (p=0.02 and p< 0.001, respectively). None of the other performed analysis showed any statistically significant results.
Conclusions:
Our findings suggest that the rs2910164 polymorphism in pre-miRNA, miR-146a may be associated with the risk of CRC.