Association Between P2RX7 Gene and Hepatocellular Carcinoma Susceptibility: A Case-Control Study in a Chinese Han Population

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common types of liver cancer. It is hypothesized that P2RX7 genetic polymorphisms have strong association with HCC susceptibility. Therefore, a case-control study was designed and performed to verify the association between P2RX7 gene polymorphisms and HCC susceptibility. Material/Methods: A total of 646 subjects were recruited in our study, including 323 HCC patients and 323 healthy controls. Five gene polymorphisms, -762C>T (rs2393799), 946G>A (rs28360457), 1513A>C (rs3751143), 1068G>A (rs1718119), and 1096C>G (rs2230911), were selected. Odds ratio (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to quantify the association between P2RX7 gene polymorphisms and the susceptibility to HCC. All tests were performed using SPSS 20 and a 2-sided P value of less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: Our results suggest that allelic frequencies of these 5 SNPs all conformed to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE). There was no significant difference in genotype and allele distributions of -762C>T and 1096C>G between the case group and the control group. However, an increased risk of HCC was associated with 946G>A (A vs. G: OR=1.48, 95% CI=1.09-2.01, P=0.013; GA+ AA vs. GG: OR=1.46, 95% CI=1.03-2.07, P=0.033). A similar increased risk was associated with 1513A>C polymorphism (C vs. A: OR=1.37, 95% CI=1.05-1.79, P=0.021; AC+ CC vs. AA: OR=1.40, 95% CI=1.01-1.93, P=0.041). On the other hand, a decreased risk of HCC was associated with gene polymorphism of 1068G>A (A vs. G: OR=0.68, 95% CI=0.51-0.91, P=0.010; GA+ AA vs. GG: OR=0.68, 95% CI=0.49-0.96, P=0.027; AA vs. GG: OR=0.42, 95% CI=0.18-0.99, P=0.048). Conclusions: Our results suggest that 3 of the 5 polymorphisms of P2RX7 described above (1513A>C, 946G>A, and 1068G>A) are significantly associated with HCC susceptibility in a Chinese Han population. Studies with larger sample sizes are recommended to confirm whether our results will be applicable to different ethnic populations in China.