Involvement of KRAS rs61764370 T>G Gene Variation in Leukemia Patients of Saudi Arabia Al-Amer Osama1,*, Alsharif KF2, Mir Rashid1, Abu-Duhier FM1, Almalki Abdulraheem2, Yassen Wayil3 1Department of Medical Laboratory Technology, Prince Fahd Bin Sultan Research Chair, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, University of Tabuk, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 2Departments of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Taif University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 3Departments of Oncology, King Salman Armed Forces Hospital, Tabuk, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia *Corresponding author: Dr Osama Al-Amer, Department of Medical Laboratory Technology, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, University of Tabuk, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Online published on 6 April, 2019. Abstract Background Recently, a variant allele in the 3′UTR of the KRAS gene (rs61764370 T>G) was shown to be associated with an increased risk for developing multiple cancer types like lung, ovarian and breast cancer. Therefore, we investigated the association of KRAS (rs61764370 T>G) gene variation in leukemia susceptibility in our population. Methodology This population-based case-control study was done on 72 clinically confirmed Leukemia patients and 87 matched healthy controls with no history of any type of cancer. The KRAS rs61764370T>G genotyping was detected by using Allele specific PCR. Results We observed a statistically significant difference in the frequencies of KRAS TT, GT and TT genotypes among patients and healthy controls (p=0.0271). This study reported significantly higher percentage of TT (11%), GT (75%) and GG (14%) genotypes in patients compared to controls TT (25%), GT (69%) and GG (06%) genotypes while higher percentage of GG (14%) genotype were reported in patients compared to control GG (6%) genotypes. Our findings showed that the KRAS rs61764370 T>G variant was associated with an increased risk of Leukemia in codominant inheritance model (OR=5.5, 95%CI= (1.43–21.0); RR=2.20, (1.04–4.64), p=0.038 TT vs GG. Dominant inheritance model (OR=2.70, 95% CI= (1.21–6.52): RR=1.45(1.10–1.91), P=0.007 (TG+ GG) VS TT and Recessive inheritance model (OR=2.64, 95%CI= (0.86–8.13), RR (1.70(0.82–3.54) P=0.025 (GG vs TT+GT) tested. While, the G allele significantly increased the risk of Leukemia (OR= 1.57; 95% CI= (1.03–2.45); RR 1.22(0.99–1.51) P=0.047 compared to T allele. Conclusion Our findings indicated that KRAS rs61764370 GG genotype and G allele are associated with an increased susceptibility to leukemia in Saudi Arabian population. It can be used as a predisposing genetic marker for Leukemia. Furthers studies with larger sample sizes are necessary to confirm our findings. Top Keywords KRAS rs61764370, SNP-Single-nucleotide polymorphism, Leukemia, OR-Odds ratio, CI-Confidence interval. Top |