Abstract
INTRODUCTION: It has been well known that the microRNA biogenesis is involved in the pathogenesis of various diseases. We investigated the possible association between DROSHA rs642321 variant and risk of acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We genotyped 75 children diagnosed with ALL and 115 age- and sex-matched children with no history of cancer of any type (as the control group) by the tetra amplification refractory mutation system-polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: We found that DROSHA rs642321 C > T variant significantly decreased the risk of ALL in codominant (TT vs. CC: odds ratio [OR] = 0.33, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.14-0.80, P = 0.020) and dominant (TT + CT vs. CC: OR = 0.51, 95% CI = 0.27-0.94, P = 0.037) inheritance model tested. The rs642321 T allele was associated with protective against ALL (OR = 0.58, 95% CI = 0.38-0.88, P = 0.011) in comparison with C allele. CONCLUSION: The study findings revealed that DROSHA rs642321 variant decreased the risk of pediatrics ALL in an Iranian population. Larger sample sizes with different ethnicities are needed to validate our findings.