Association of miR-196a-2 and miR-499 variants with ulcerative colitis and their correlation with expression of respective miRNAs

BACKGROUND AND AIM MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs that play an important role in regulating the gene expression of their target genes. SNP miR-196a-2 rs11614913 and miR-499 rs3746444 are reported to have association with the risk and prognosis of multiple-types of inflammatory diseases including IBD. This study was conducted to show if any association of SNP miR-196a-2rs11614913 and miR-499 rs3746444 exists with ulcerative colitis (UC) patients of north Indian population and how these polymorphisms modulate the expression profile of the respective miRNAs. METHODS A total of 638 participants including 197 UC patients and 441 controls were included in this study. Polymorphisms were genotyped by PCR-RFLP and the miRNA expression was measured using qRT-PCR. Genotypes and allele frequencies were calculated using SPSS 16 software. RESULTS MiR-196a-2 rs11614913 (C>T) and miR-499 rs3746444 (T>C) were found to be associated with UC. TT genotype of miR-196a-2 rs11614913 (p = 0.03) was negatively associated with UC whereas the heterozygous TC genotype of miR-499 rs3746444 (p = 0.003) was showing positive association with UC. Patients having a combination of both SNPs, developed disease at older age and they suffered from severe disease extent. Genotype that showed association with the disease also showed correlation with the changes in miRNA expression. CONCLUSION In this study we found miR-196a-2 rs11614913 and miR-499 rs3746444 were associated with UC in north Indian population. We found the genotype that showed association with UC also altered the expression of respective miRNA in the patient harboring the genotype. There was correlation between associated genotype and altered miRNA expression.