Heterozygote of TAP1 Codon637 decreases susceptibility to HPV infection but increases susceptibility to esophageal cancer among the Kazakh populations

The role of human papillomavirus (HPV) may be involved in the development of esophageal cancer (EC) and the polymorphic immune response gene transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP) may be involved in HPV persistence and subsequent cancer carcinogenesis. The current study aims to provide association evidence for HPV with EC, to investigate TAP1 polymorphisms in EC and assess its association with HPV statuses and EC in Kazakhs. The HPV genotypes in 361 patients with EC and 66 controls selected from Kazakh population were evaluated using PCR. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was performed to detect two SNPs of TAP1 in 150 cases comprised of 75 HPV(+) and 75 HPV(-) patients and 283 pure ethnic population of Kazakh and evaluate their associations with susceptibility to EC. A case-to-case comparison based on the genotyping results was conducted to address the function of TAP1 variants in the involvement of HPV. The presence of four HPV genotypes in EC tissues - including HPV 16, 18, 31, 45 - was significantly higher at 64.6 % than those in controls at 18.2 % (P