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Circadian clock pathway genes associated with colorectal cancer risk and prognosis

  • Genotoxicity and Carcinogenicity
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Abstract

Circadian clock genes influence biological processes and may be involved in tumorigenesis. We systematically evaluated genetic variants in the circadian clock pathway genes associated with colorectal cancer risk and survival. We evaluated the association of 119 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 27 circadian clock pathway genes with the risk of colorectal cancer in a case–control study (1150 cases and 1342 controls). The false discovery rate (FDR) method was applied to correct for multiple comparisons. Gene-based analysis was performed by the sequence kernel association test (SKAT). Cox proportional hazards regression was used to calculate the effects of SNPs on the overall survival of patients. We identified that compared to those with the G allele, individuals with the rs76436997 A allele in RORA had a significant 1.33-fold increased risk of colorectal cancer (P = 3.83 × 10− 4). Specifically, the GA/AA genotypes were related to an enhanced risk of colorectal cancer compared with that associated with the GG genotype, which was more common in patients with well and moderately differentiated tumors and Dukes A/B stages. The SNP rs76436997 significantly increased the overall survival time of colorectal cancer patients (P = 0.044). Furthermore, RNA-seq data showed that the mRNA levels of RORA were significantly lower in colorectal tumors than the paired normal tissues. Gene-based analysis revealed a significant association between RORA and colorectal cancer risk. These findings highlight the important roles of genetic variations in circadian clock pathway genes play in colorectal cancer risk and suggest that RORA is potentially related to colorectal carcinogenesis.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC0908200), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81773516), the Foundation of Six Talent Peaks Project of Jiangsu (YY-020), and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (Public Health and Preventive Medicine).

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JC, ZFZ, and MW conceived and designed the experiments. DG and SL wrote the paper. SB and MD contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools. HC and ZZ recruited samples. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Meilin Wang, Zuo-Feng Zhang or Jinfei Chen.

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The authors made no disclosures.

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Gu, D., Li, S., Ben, S. et al. Circadian clock pathway genes associated with colorectal cancer risk and prognosis. Arch Toxicol 92, 2681–2689 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00204-018-2251-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00204-018-2251-7

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