title: Evaluation of Aurora-A gene polymorphism and esophageal cancer risk in a South Indian population.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Aurora-A is a serine/threonine protein kinase that functions in centrosome maturation and spindle assembly and is involved in regulating chromosome segregation. It is amplified and overexpressed in several human cancers. The aim of the present study was to assess the role of T91A Aurora-A gene polymorphism associated with aneuploidy in human tumors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients with different upper gastrointestinal tract symptoms who were referred for endoscopy were studied. They were categorized as individuals with esophageal cancer, esophagitis, and normal endoscopy based on endoscopy and histology reports. Healthy volunteers were used as controls for carrying out genomic polymerase chain reaction followed by restriction digestion. The cancer and esophagitis groups showed a higher percentage of cases with the TA genotype compared with the controls and gastrointestinal tract normal endoscopy samples. However, only esophagitis, despite a small sample size, showed a statistically significant association with the TA genotype (odds ratio=3.6082, 95% class interval=1.1276-8.8346, p=0.0411). It was also assessed if the T91A polymorphism plays a role in enhancing the effects of exogenous factors such as smoking, alcohol, tea, betel chewing, and nonvegetarian diet in esophageal pathologies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results indicate that the TT genotype is protective against these factors as a higher percentage of this genotype was found in individuals with normal endoscopy. This is the first study, to the best of our knowledge, carried out in an Indian population to evaluate the association of Aurora-A gene polymorphism with esophageal cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Mahavir Hospital and Research Centre, Hyderabad, India.
authors.forename: Srinivas
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chava
authors.forename: Vasavi
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mohan
authors.forename: Nagarjuna
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pasupuleti
authors.forename: Manolla Madhavi
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Latha
authors.forename: Imran Ali
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: Pavani
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Upendram
authors.forename: Ajith
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Yog R
authors.initials: YR
authors.lastname: Ahuja
authors.forename: Qurratulain
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Hasan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000483:Alleles; D064127:Aurora Kinases; D004724:Endoscopy; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000235:genetics*; D004941:Esophagitis / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000601:surgery; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000235:genetics*; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D064127:Aurora Kinases; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases