Brief Report - (2021) Volume 7, Issue 6
Department of Biotechnology, Osmania University, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
Received Date: June 10, 2021; Accepted Date: June 15, 2021; Published Date: June 20, 2021
Citation: Vitamin D Receptor Gene Polymorphism in Vitamin D Deficient Premenopausal Pakistani Females was Linked to Breast Cancer Risk using PCR/RFLP. Biochem Mol Biol Vol. 7, No. 6: 30.
In Asian countries, including Pakistan, the rise in breast cancer is alarming. The incidence of breast cancer in Pakistan is 2.5 times more than in other countries of Asia. Fifty out of 100,000 in Pakistan as compared to Indian women (19 out of 100,000) were affected with breast cancer. It is said that, out of every nine women, one is likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer and this ratio increases as the age increases.
B (UVB) rays are essential for cutaneous production of vitamin D, sunlight exposure is mandatory for optimum vitamin D levels. Ecological studies have associated increased sunlight exposure with low breast cancer incidence and mortality. The above-mentioned studies laid the foundation for examining the hypothesis that vitamin D deficiency increases cancer risk and mortality, including breast cancer.
Keeping this heightened interest regarding this association in mind, a number of recent observational studies, as well as clinical trials of vitamin D supplementation were observed, which examined the relationship between vitamin D status and breast cancer. Vitamin D deficiency is often defined as a serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25 (OH) D) less than 20 ng/mL or 50 nmol/L (1 ng/mL=2.5 nmol/L). This has become a shared concern among physicians, many of whom now routinely screen for vitamin D deficiency and/or recommend supplementation both in healthy women as well as breast cancer patients.
The upper safety limit in healthy individuals was raised from 2000 IU to 4000 IU daily. However, the IOM also raised concerns about negative health effects for circulating 25 (OH) D levels above 50 ng/mL (or 125 nmol/L). After a thorough review of the literature, it was concluded that there was insufficient evidence to recommend vitamin D supplementation both for replacement and maintenance for cancer prevention or treatment (http://www.IOM.edu/vitamin D).
The current knowledge about the anti-cancer properties of vitamin D, VDR and VDR gene polymorphism in different ethnicities was observed and also evaluating its association with breast cancer. Vitamin D performs by binding with vitamin D receptor (VDR) which is a potent transcription factor butis ligand-dependent. The receptor has two zinc finger structures with a characteristic DNA binding domain and a carboxy terminal ligand-binding domain.
When bound to its ligand, calcitriol (1,25 (OH)2D), VDR dimerizes with the retinoid × receptor (R×R), a conformational change occurs, that allows the Hetrodimer to translocate into the nucleus, where it binds to vitamin D response elements (VDRE) in the promoter regions, responsible for transcriptional regulation of target genes. The important functions of VDR include apoptosis, cell proliferation, differentiation, angiogenesis and metastasis.
