Glutathione S-transferase omega gene polymorphism as a biomarker for human papilloma virus and cervical cancer in Iranian women

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is an important sexually-transmitted infection worldwide. Persistent infections with different high-risk HPV genotypes may cause cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and cervical cancer. Single nucleotide polymorphisms of glutathione S-transferase omega (GSTO) 1 and 2 play an important role in cancer progression. To evaluate GSTO gene polymorphism influence on women’s susceptibility to low-risk or high-risk HPV infections and also risk of cervical cancer development.

We examined 50 patients with cervical cancer, 43 patients who were positive for HPV, and 43 healthy individuals as negative controls. We used polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism to determine GSTO1 A140D and GSTO2 N142D variants in study participants.

We found a significant association between the GSTO1 A140D gene polymorphism and HPV 6, 16, 18, 16/18 infections and cervical cancer in Iranian women. We noted a significant difference for the 140AD/142NN combination genotype between patients in the cervical cancer group and healthy controls. There were no significant differences for the GSTO2 N142D genotype and allele frequencies between the patient (i.e., cervical cancer and HPV-positive) groups and controls.

The 140AD genotype, 140D allele, and 140AD/142NN combination genotype seem to confer a protective property in women’s susceptibility to HPV 6, 16, 18, 16/18 infections and cervical cancer. However, the GSTO2 N142D polymorphism is not associated with HPV infections and cervical cancer. It would appear that GSTO1 A140D SNPs likely play a role in the level of susceptibility to HPV-related cervical cancer.