CHARACTERIZATION OF POLYMORPHISMS -330 AND ANALYSIS OF GENE EXPRESSION OF INTERLEUKIN 2 IN SAMPLES FROM PATIENTS WITH GASTRIC DISEASE: A POSSIBLE RELATIONSHIP WITH HELICOBACTER PYLORI

• Grant number: 14/23943-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2015
• End date: February 29, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Human and Medical Genetics
• Principal Investigator: Lucas Trevizani Rasmussen
• Grantee: Jéssica Lima Melchiades
• Host Institution: Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação. Universidade do Sagrado Coração (USC). Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Interleukin-2 is a pro-inflammatory cytokine, mainly synthesized by immunoregulatory T helper (Th) cells and performs an important role in antitumor immunity being considered one non-specific antigen proliferative agent. Helicobacter pylori is a gram-negative bacterium that colonizes the gastric mucosa and is responsible for several gastroduodenal diseases, such as: gastritis, ulcers, and gastric tumors. Apparently, induces the production of IL-2, thus, occurs an increase of the production of inflammatory cytokines in response to H. pylori infection, that results in severe gastric inflammation causing mucosal injury. In view of the possible involvement of IL-2 and the presence of H. pylori in gastric diseases development, this project has like objective to characterize the polymorphism of promoter region -330 (rs2069762) of IL-2 by PCR-RFLP and analyze the genic expression, by Real Time PCR of the IL-2 gene in 150 samples of gastric biopsies of patients with gastric cancer and peptic symptoms, in order to associate genotypes found to the expression and correlates them to the presence of H. pylori and its main markers of pathogenicity. The development of this approach will may open new perspectives to the characterization of involved factors in peptic diseases and genic regulation, aiming to a better understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of these diseases.