Increasing evidence has suggested that microRNAs (miRNA) play an important role in tumorigenesis. As transcriptional regulators, altered miRNA expression may affect many cancerrelated biological pathways, indicating that miRNAs can function as tumor suppressors and/or oncogenes. We first performed a genetic association analysis by screening genetic variants in 15 miRNA genes and detected that a common sequence variant in hsa-miR-196a-2 (rs11614913, C!T) was significantly associated with decreased breast cancer risk ( for homozygous variant: odds ratio, 0.44; 95% confidence interval, 0.28-0.70). Hypermethylation of a CpG island upstream (-700 bp) of the miR-196a-2 precursor was also associated with reduced breast cancer risk (odds ratio, 0.35; 95% confidence interval, 0.15-0.81).
Circadian genes are responsible for maintaining the ancient adaptation of a 24-hour circadian rhythm and influence a variety of cancer-related biological pathways, including the regulation of sex hormone levels. However, few studies have been undertaken to investigate the role of circadian genes in the development of prostate cancer, the most common cancer type among men (excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer).The current genetic association study tested the circadian gene hypothesis in relation to prostate cancer by genotyping a total of 41 tagging and amino acid-altering single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in 10 circadian-related genes in a population-based case-control study of Caucasian men (n = 1,308 cases and 1,266 controls). Our results showed that at least one SNP in nine core circadian genes
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.