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Genetic variant near TERC influencing the risk of gliomas with older age at diagnosis in a Chinese population

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Abstract

A recent genome-wide association study has identified an association between rs1920116 near TERC and high-grade glioma in populations of European ancestry. In order to evaluate the effect of the SNP rs1920116 near TERC in the Chinese population, we examined associations of this candidate SNP with glioma in a sample of 1970 Chinese Han individuals. SNP genotype data were available for 980 Chinese glioma patients and 990 healthy controls. Logistic regression analyses were performed to evaluate the association between rs1920116 and glioma risk adjusted for age, gender and stratified by tumor grade where appropriate. The allele G at TERC rs1920116 are risk factors for gliomas, and its association with glioma risk was consistent across tumor subgroups in the Chinese Han population (OR = 1.18–1.21). In order to assess variation in SNP effect size at different patient ages, glioma cases and controls were divided into 3 age strata, in years: <50, 50–59, and 60+. The results of multiple logistic regression analyses indicate that the SNP has age-specific effects on the risk of developing glioma. Our report confirmed the effects of rs1920116 near TERC on glioma occurring in older peoples in the Chinese Han population for the first time. As TERC is a candidate for inter-individual variation in telomere length, our study supports the hypothesis that telomerase-related mechanisms of telomere maintenance are more associated with gliomas that develop later in life.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the numerous sample donors for making this work possible. This work was funded by the Foundation of Education Department of Heilongjiang Province (12541307 and 11551221).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, Harbin Medical University, No.23 of Youzheng Str., Nangang District, Harbin, 150001, Heilongjiang Province, China

      Dianhong Wang, Enxi Hu, Pei Wu, Shancai Xu, Zhe Sun, Huaizhang Shi, Jingtao Yuan, Guozhong Li & Shiguang Zhao

    2. Department of Medical Engineering, The 211st Hospital of People’s Liberation Army, Harbin, China

      Wenjing Yuan

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    Dianhong Wang, Enxi Hu, and Pei Wu have contribute equally to this work.

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    Wang, D., Hu, E., Wu, P. et al. Genetic variant near TERC influencing the risk of gliomas with older age at diagnosis in a Chinese population. J Neurooncol 124, 57–64 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-015-1819-9

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