Author/Authors :
Mohamadkhani, Ashraf Liver and Pancreatobiliary Diseases Research Institute , Akbari, Mohammad Reza Research Institute - Tehran University of Medical Sciences , Ghanbari, Reza Liver and Pancreatobiliary Diseases Research Institute , Naderi, Elnaz Liver and Pancreatobiliary Diseases Research Institute , Rezanejad-Asl, Parisa Dalla Lana School of Public Health - University of Toronto , Pourshams, Akram Liver and Pancreatobiliary Diseases Research Institute
Abstract :
BACKGROUND
There are hoarding documents for the biological importance of cyclooxygenase-
2 (COX-2) in pancreatic carcinogenesis. We aimed to thoroughly investigate
the DNA sequence variations of whole COX-2 exons in a large casecontrol
study of pancreatic cancer by direct sequencing.
METHODS
The entire exonic regions of COX-2 including 10 exons were sequenced
in the germline DNA of 96 patients with pancreatic cancer. Selected variants
within exons six to seven (E6E7) amplicon from the test panel were genotyped
in 96 controls.
RESULTS
The COX-2 gene was demonstrated to be genetically conserved. Four
missense mutations were found in three cases. However the common variant
c.724-10_724-7delATTT (rs201231411) that is located in intron 6, showed
significant difference between cases and controls (21 [21.9%] vs 11 [%11.5],
p=0.05).
CONCLUSION
This study determined that COX-2 has a conservative sequence, which is
required for its enzymatic activity and supports the important role of this enzyme’s
expression in pancreatic cancer rather than any changes in its activity.
The effect of intronic variant rs201231411 on COX-2 expression could be analyzed
in future studies.
