Confirmation of involvement of new variants at CDKN2A/B in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia susceptibility in the Spanish population

PLoS One. 2017 May 8;12(5):e0177421. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0177421. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

The locus CDKN2A/B (9p21.3), which comprises the tumor suppressors genes CDKN2A and CDKN2B and the long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) known as ANRIL (or CDKN2B-AS), was associated with childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) susceptibility in several genome wide association studies (GWAS). However, the variants associated in the diverse studies were different. Recently, new and independent SNPs deregulating the locus function were also identified in association with ALL risk. This diversity in the results may be explained because different variants in each population could alter CDKN2A/B locus function through diverse mechanisms. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine whether the annotated risk variants in the CDKN2A/B locus affect the susceptibility of B cell precursor ALL (B-ALL) in our Spanish population and explore if other SNPs altering additional regulatory mechanisms could be also involved. We analyzed the four SNPs proposed by GWAs and two additional SNPs in miRNA binding sites in 217 pediatric patients with B-ALL and 330 healthy controls. The SNPs rs2811712, rs3731249, rs3217992 and rs2811709 were associated with B-ALL susceptibility in our Spanish population. ALL subtypes analyses showed that rs2811712 was associated with B-hyperdiploid ALL. These results provide evidence for the influence of genetic variants at CDKN2A/B locus with the risk of developing B-ALL.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p15 / genetics*
  • Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p16
  • Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p18 / genetics*
  • Female
  • Genotype
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Leukemia, B-Cell / genetics*
  • Male
  • Mutation*
  • Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / genetics*
  • Spain

Substances

  • CDKN2A protein, human
  • CDKN2B protein, human
  • Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p15
  • Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p16
  • Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p18

Grants and funding

This study was funded by the Basque Government (IT661-13, IT989-16), UPV/EHU (UFI11/35). AGC was supported by a pre-doctoral grant from the Basque Government. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.