Association of Codon 72 of P53 Gene Polymorphism with Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection: A Case Control Study

Single nucleotide polymorphism in codon 72 of p53 gene (Arg/Pro) changes p53 protein structure and affects its activities. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is believed to induce hepatocellular carcinoma and P53 polymorphisms have been associated with human cancers. The aim of this study was to evaluate genetic variants of codon 72 of p53 gene polymorphism in HCV patients and its relationship with HCV infection.
The study was conducted on 67 HCV patients, who were referred to medical centers of Mashhad city, Iran, and 73 healthy people from the same region. Genotyping of codon 72 of p53 gene was performed by PCR-RFLP method.
The distributions of different alleles of p53 polymorphisms did not differ significantly between groups. The respective proportions of Proline homozygotes, heterozygotes, and Arginine homozygotes were 37.31%, 35.82%, 26.86% in patients and 39.72%, 27.39%, and 32.87% in the control group respectively. However, we found no significant differenece for the allelic or genotype distribution between cases and controls.
Our results indicated no strong evidence of association of the p53 polymorphism with HCV infection; however, further investigation is needed in different ethnic groups to elucidate the role of this polymorphism in HCV infection.