Cancer Genetic Markers Among School Children in Relation to Urogenital Schistosomiasis

Abstract

Chronic infection with urogenital schistosomiasis can lead to severe complications such as bladder cancer. Hence, this study determined the presence of Cancer Genetic Markers among School Children in relation to Urogenital Schistosomiasis. All 36 S. haematobium positive cases from an earlier study and randomly selected 156 negative samples were used. Immunogens tested for, included glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR3). Mean optical density (OD) was 0.73 and 0.79 for GAPDH and FGFR3 respectively. A total of 21 (10.94%) participants, 16 females and 5 males were positive for GAPDH marker. Fifty (26.04%) participants were positive for FGFR3 via ELISA cutoff. Mean OD for S. haematobium positive individuals tested for GAPDH was 0.938, minimum value was 0.119 while maximum value was 4.507. For FGFR3 mean OD was 0.896, Maximum 2.882 and minimum 0.28, while females showed higher GAPDH OD. More females than males who were positive for S. haematobium were also positive for GAPDH (11.1%) and FGFR3 (25%). FGFR3 and GAPDH marker prevalence for Individuals Positive for S. haematobium is 25% and 16.7% respectively. The age group 11-15 years were the only group positive for GAPDH. There was a slight positive correlation between age and FGFR3 and age and GAPDH. The presence of these markers is an indicator that the children in the selected communities maybe at risk of developing bladder cancer in the future if the disease is not properly managed and controlled.