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1 Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School; 2 Department of Nutrition and 3 Program in Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts and 4 Research Center for Genes, Environment, and Human Health, and Graduate Institute of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
Requests for reprints: Yen-Ching Chen, Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115. Phone: 617-525-2279; Fax: 617-525-2008. E-mail: karen.chen{at}channing.harvard.edu
| Abstract |
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Methods: In a nested case-control design within the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, we identified 700 participants with prostate cancer who were diagnosed after they had provided a blood specimen in 1993 and by January 31, 2000. Controls were 700 age-matched men without prostate cancer who had had a prostate-specific antigen test. We genotyped 19 common (>5%) haplotype-tagging SNPs chosen from the SNPs discovered in a resequencing study spanning TLR6, TLR1, and TLR10 to test for the association between sequence variants cluster and prostate cancer.
Results: Neither individual SNPs nor common haplotypes in the three gene regions were associated with altered risk of prostate cancer or subgroups of aggressive prostate cancer. No effect modification was observed for age, body mass index, or family history of prostate cancer, except that TLR6_3649 showed nominally significant interaction with family history at the P < 0.05 level.
Conclusion: Inherited sequence variants of the innate immune gene cluster TLR6-TLR1-TLR10 were not appreciably associated with the risk of prostate cancer in this cohort. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2007;16(10):1982–9)
| Introduction |
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TLR1, TLR6, and TLR10 activate the nuclear factor-
B pathway (2). Additionally, TLR6 activates the c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase pathway (4). TLR1 and TLR6 need to combine with TLR2 to form dimers to recognize pathogens (10, 11) and produce subsequent cytokine induction (12). The TLR1-TLR2 dimers recognize peptidoglycans from Gram-positive bacteria and zymosan from yeast cell walls; the TLR2-TLR6 dimers recognize the lipoproteins from Mycoplasma (11, 12). TLR10 can form either a homodimer or a heterodimer with TLR1 or TLR2; its cytoplasmic regions are also different from those of TLR1 and TLR6 (7). Genetic variations in TLR1 have been related to the risk of Lyme disease (10) and atherogenesis (13). TLR10 has been linked to asthma (14). Health effects related to sequence variants of TLR6 are unclear.
In TLR1-deficient mice, proinflammatory cytokine was not produced normally by macrophages when stimulated by lipoprotein and a synthetic triacylated lipopeptide (15). A murine model showed that a TLR2 and TLR6 heterodimer may be involved in immunomodulation of macrophages mediated by an antigenic protein, rLcrV (16). The Toll/interleukin-1 receptor domain of TLR10 is important in activation of promoters of certain inflammation cytokines (7).
Chronic inflammation has been associated with some cancers (e.g., cervix, stomach, primary liver, and bladder cancers; refs. 17, 18). Substantial evidence, including studies on sexually transmitted infections, clinical prostatitis, and genetic and circulating markers of inflammation and response to infection, supports a link between chronic intraprostatic inflammation and the risk of prostate cancer (19). Although TLR6, TLR1, and TLR10 are not expressed in prostate tissue, these genes are involved in the signaling pathway of pathogen-related innate immune responses, which may be involved in prostate carcinogenesis. A study of a Swedish population found that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) and haplotypes in the TLR6-TLR1-TLR10 gene cluster were associated with the risk of prostate cancer (20). The same team later reported that the combination of IRAK4-7987 CG/CC and the risk genotype at the TLR6-TLR1-TLR10 gene cluster was associated with a 9.7-fold risk of prostate cancer compared with men with wild-type genotypes in the same Swedish population (21). Previous studies also showed significant associations between sequence variants of TLR4 and prostate cancer risk (22, 23). We hypothesized that genetic polymorphisms of the TLR6-TLR1-TLR10 gene cluster are associated with the risk of prostate cancer. Therefore, we explored the association between the TLR6-TLR1-TLR10 gene cluster and the risk of prostate cancer in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. SNP and haplotype analyses as well as case-only analyses were done to test this hypothesis.
| Materials and Methods |
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Between 1993 and 1995, blood samples from 18,018 of the participants were collected in tubes containing sodium EDTA. Samples were shipped by overnight courier and centrifuged; the aliquots, including plasma, erythrocytes, and buffy coat, were stored in liquid nitrogen freezers. We used a Qiagen QIAamp blood extraction kit for DNA extraction. All DNA samples were whole genome amplified, and the quality control samples had 100% genotype concordance rates. Among the men who gave a blood specimen, 95% responded to the year 2000 questionnaire; 18 died of prostate cancer before the end of follow-up and were included in the case series.
We identified 700 incident prostate cancer cases and 700 controls, which were composed of 94% self-reported Caucasians, 2.7% other races, and 3.5% without ethnicity data. To prevent the possible effect of population stratification, all analyses were restricted to Caucasians only (cases = 659, controls = 656). Each case was matched with one control who was alive, had not been diagnosed with cancer by the date of the case's diagnosis, and had a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test after the date of blood draw. The latter criterion ensured that controls had the opportunity to have an occult prostate cancer diagnosed. All controls had a PSA test within 2.5 years of the date of diagnosis of their matched case. Cases and controls were matched on year of birth (±1 year), PSA test before blood draw (yes/no), and time (midnight to before 9 a.m., 9 a.m. to before noon, noon to before 4 p.m., and 4 p.m. to before midnight), season (winter, spring, summer, and fall), and exact year of blood draw because plasma analyses were being done on the same case-control set.
Laboratory Assays
Haplotype-tagging SNPs were chosen using resequencing data from the Innate Immunity in Heart, Lung and Blood Disease-Programs for Genomic Applications. The Innate Immunity in Heart, Lung and Blood Disease-Programs for Genomic Applications resequenced the TLR6, TLR1, and TLR10 genes of 23 unrelated Europeans from Centre d'Etude du Polymorphisme Humain families, including 2.5 kb 5' of the genes, exons, and 1.5 kb 3' of the gene. Snp1 to Snp6 are common haplotype-tagging SNPs in TLR6 with frequencies >5%, chosen to tag haplotypes with frequencies >10% using the algorithm described in Sebastiani et al. (25). Snp7 was forced in because it is a nonsynonymous SNP. Snp9 and Snp10 are common haplotype-tagging SNPs in TLR1; Snp8, Snp11, and Snp12 were forced in for comparison with the previous study (20). Snp13 to Snp17 and Snp19 are common haplotype-tagging SNPs in TLR10, and Snp18 was forced in for comparison purposes as well. Laboratory personnel were blinded to case-control status. All case-control matched pairs were analyzed together using the Sequenom system. Multiplex PCRs were carried out to generate short PCR products (>100 bp) containing one SNP. The details of PCR and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry are available on request. Six control DNA samples were used for optimization. One SNP in TLR1 failed Sequenom assay design due to other SNPs that might interfere with primer annealing or extension. Another SNP in TLR1 was dropped after optimization because of high discordance rates among its duplicate samples. Finally, a total of 19 SNPs (Fig. 1
; Table 1
) were genotyped in seven plexes at the Harvard Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics (Boston, MA). For each SNP, genotyping data were missing in <5% of the study participants. Sixty-eight quality control samples were obtained from 18 external participants and each of them had two to six duplicates. These quality control samples were genotyped together with all other samples in this study. All quality control samples passed the quality control test (discordance rate = 0).
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T3b, N1, or M1), organ-confined or minimal extraprostatic extension (T1b to T3a and N0M0), higher grade (Gleason sum
7), and lower grade (Gleason sum <7). Incidental microscopic focal tumors (stage T1a) were excluded because they are generally indolent and susceptible to detection bias due to differential rates of surgery for benign prostatic hyperplasia. In addition, men with a previous cancer, except nonmelanoma skin cancer, before the date of blood draw were excluded. Confirmed non-T1a tumors between blood draw and January 31, 2000 were included. In the blood subcohort, 92% of cases were confirmed by medical records and 5% by other corroborating information; only 3% were based on self-report (26).
Statistical Analysis
The Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) test was done for each SNP among controls. Haplotype block structure (Fig. 1) was determined by using Haploview5 and LocusView.6 The expectation-maximization algorithm was applied to estimate haplotype frequencies in each block using the tagSNP program (27). Conditional logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios (OR) for disease in participants carrying either one or two versus zero copies of the minor allele of each SNP and each multilocus haplotype; haplotype trend regression (28) was used to test global association between TLR6-TLR1-TLR10 haplotypes and prostate cancer. The type I error rate is controlled by the single multiple-degree-of-freedom test of association between TLR6-TLR1-TLR10 haplotypes and prostate cancer. Given a significant global test, haplotype- and SNP-specific tests can provide some guidance as to which variant(s) contributes to the significant global test, although the nominal P values we present do not control the family-wise error rate for these post hoc comparisons.
Age and family history are known risk factors for prostate cancer (29, 30); body mass index (BMI) is related to the risk of prostate cancer, although not consistently (31). We evaluated how these factors modified the association between TLR6-TLR1-TLR10 SNPs or haplotypes and the risk of prostate cancer by comparing a model with terms for main effects and interaction terms to a model with terms for main effects only using the likelihood ratio test. Because of the role of TLR6-TLR1-TLR10 in the innate immune response, the aggressiveness of prostate cancer may relate to genetic variations in the TLR6-TLR1-TLR10 gene cluster. We tested the association between TLR6-TLR1-TLR10 haplotypes and aggressiveness among patients with prostate cancer by using two definitions for tumor aggressiveness (aggressiveness 1: stage T3b or T4 or N1 or M1 or death due to prostate cancer; aggressiveness 2: stage T3b or T4 or N1 or M1 or death due to prostate cancer or Gleason sum
7). Aggressiveness 1 is useful in evaluating participants lacking information for Gleason sum and indicates how far a cancer has progressed independent of grade. Aggressiveness 2 indicates the potential of the tumor to progress by considering grade information. All analyses were conducted with Statistical Analysis System release 9.0 (SAS Institute), and all statistical tests were two sided.
| Results |
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The study population included 659 incident prostate cancer cases and 656 matched controls. Age and BMI distributions were similar for cases and controls (Table 2 ). Family history of prostate cancer was significantly different between cases and controls (P = 0.009). The mean age at starting smoking, lifetime average number of cigarettes/day, and alcohol consumption were similar for cases and controls. Among cases, 78% were in tumor stage T1b to T3a, 73% had Gleason grade 5 to 7, 8% had aggressive prostate cancer defined by aggressiveness 1, and 36% had aggressive prostate cancer defined by aggressiveness 2. Eighteen cases died of prostate cancer before January 31, 2000.
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No SNPs showed nominally significant interaction with family history at the P < 0.01 level, and only one had a nominally significant interaction at the <0.05 level (Supplementary Table S1). BMI and age were not effect modifiers for the association between TLR6-TLR1-TLR10 SNPs and prostate cancer.
Case-only analysis (aggressive versus nonaggressive) was done among prostate cancer patients. No SNPs were associated with tumor aggressiveness (data not shown). Results were not significant for haplotype analyses as well (Table 5 ).
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| Discussion |
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Our results contrast with a Swedish study (20) that found that eight SNPs and six haplotypes in the same gene cluster were significantly associated with prostate cancer risk. None of the individual SNPs that were significantly associated with prostate cancer in the Swedish study were significantly associated in ours. Several factors could account for the disparity in results. Although both populations are Caucasian, the Swedish one is relatively homogeneous compared with ours. The case mix may have been different, as the cases in our population are heavily skewed toward early-stage PSA-detected cases. The Swedish study had about twice as many cases (including prevalent cases), and we may have been underpowered to confirm the associations the Swedish researchers observed. However, the direction of prostate cancer risk was opposite between the two studies and thus statistical power may not be an issue. In addition, there may have been some study design issues (e.g., SNP selection), although we believe that these were not major enough to account for the quite divergent results. Finally, if relevant, the TLR pathway would influence prostate cancer risk through some inflammatory pathway, and exposure to the presumed etiologic infectious agent(s) could differ in the two populations. Therefore, we believe that results from the Swedish study might not be generalizable to the U.S. Caucasian population.
Previous studies indicated that high BMI was related with low blood testosterone level and thus lower risk of early-onset prostate cancer (34). The other study, however, found that a low level of testosterone was related to high BMI (
30), which reflects high insulin and insulin-like growth factor-I levels and, thus, high risk of high-grade prostate cancer (35). It is well known that the risk of prostate cancer significantly increases after age 50 (36, 37). However, the associations between SNPs in the TLR6-TLR1-TLR10 gene cluster and the risk of prostate cancer were not significantly modified by BMI and age in this study.
Our study had several limitations. Although population stratification cannot be excluded in a case-control study (38), our study population had a large sample size and was composed of 94% Caucasians. In addition, results from inclusion of all participants and all Caucasians were similar. This suggests that population stratification is not an issue in our population. For disease ascertainment, only 3% of cases were based on self-report. A high concordance rate (>90%) was found between self-report and medical record–confirmed cases. As a whole, these factors increase the validity of the results. An important limitation is that prostate cancer is a very heterogeneous cancer, and our case mix was largely composed of early-stage PSA-detected cancers. Although we had reasonable power to examine total prostate cancer as the end point, if an association exists for an important subgroup of cases (e.g., metastatic cancer), we were probably underpowered.
After recognition of microbial components, TLRs activate not only innate immunity but also adaptive immunity, largely by dendritic cells, which later express TLRs (e.g., TLR1, TLR2, TLR4, and TLR5; refs. 3, 39). TLR1 and TLR6 need to combine with TLR2 to form dimers to recognize pathogens (10, 11) and elicit subsequent cytokine induction (12). Studies on mice have shown that CD4TLR10 could interact with MyD88 and then activate nuclear factor-
B (2, 7). These mechanisms are very similar as TLR4 signaling pathway in response to pathogen recognition. However, data on human TLR10 are limited. A previous study (22) shows some evidence of association, supporting the contention that variation in TLRs may reduce or even block the signaling of the immune response (e.g., chronic inflammation) and thereby lower the risk of prostate cancer. But this study did not find any association with TLR6-TLR1-TLR10. Combined with the previous study, the results are mixed. The inconsistent results with the TLR6-TLR1-TLR10 gene cluster as well as TLR4 between the Swedish study and ours suggest the problem of low reproducibility across genetic studies. Because of the limited amount of research on inflammation and prostate cancer, more studies on these genes will be needed to confirm these findings. Future studies related to biological pathways may help us understand the mechanisms of prostate cancer risk.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
Note: Supplementary data for this article are available at Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention Online (http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/).
5 http://www.broad.mit.edu/mpg/haploview/index.php ![]()
6 http://www.broad.mit.edu/mpg/locusview/ ![]()
Received 4/ 9/07; revised 7/26/07; accepted 8/ 6/07.
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