The effect of UCP-2 and NR3C1 genes on treatment efficacy and overall survival in patients with multiple myeloma

Introduction: Multiple myeloma (MM) is a malignant plasma cell dyscrasia that leads to monoclonal light and heavy chain overproduction. There are studies evaluating the relationship between steroid resistance and neuron-specific glucocorticoid receptor (NR3C1); the expression of UCP -2 (uncoupling protein-2) in malignancies. In our study, we aimed to demonstrate the effect of functional gene variants of UCP2 and NR3C1 on treatment efficacy and survival in MM patients. Method: 200 patients who were diagnosed with MM and 200 healthy persons were included in our study at Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit of Gaziantep University Hematology Department. Autolog bone marrow transplantation (ABMT) was performed in 77.5% of the patients. Rs41423247 and rs659366 variants of UCP-2 and NR3C1 genes from DNA from peripheral blood of individuals were studied by PCR-RFLP method. Findings: The patients 5 years overall survival (OS) was 71% and progression-free survival (PFS) was 43.8 months. The genotype and allele distribution of the NR3C1 gene was similar in the healthy control group and the MM group, and it was not statistically significant on OS and PFS. The AA genotype and A allele frequencies of UCP-2 significantly increased MM and were found to play an important role in the predisposition to MM (5.6 fold risk increase) (p: 0.001). It was determined that GG genotype was more common in healthy group and it was a protective factor (p: 0.013). Conclusion: Studies are underway to determine OS and PFS of patients with MM. NR3C1 does not differ between those diagnosed with MM and those in healthy control group. It is thought that steroid resistance in MM disease is caused by another way. UCP-2 's AA genotype is susceptible to disease, GG genotype was found to be protective against the disease. In the future, we think that UCP2 gene variants will be more involved in MM prognosis. Keywords: Multiple myeloma, UCP-2, NR3C1