Association between TLR2, TLR4, and TLR5 genetic variants and the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in Moroccan population.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common human malignancy and the fourth most frequent cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Toll-like receptors (TLRs), are known to play a key role in hepatocarcinogenesis through induction of inflammation. We aimed to investigate the association between rs3804099, rs4986790, rs4986791, and rs11536889 and 5 rs5744174 and HCC risk in a total of 306 Moroccan subjects, including 152 HCC patient and 154 controls using a TaqMan allelic discrimination assay. Our result showed that the frequency of rs11536889 C allele was higher in control group than in HCC patients (OR = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.30-0.88,  = 0.01). Moreover, under the dominant model, we observed that CG/CC genotypes were protective factors against HCC risk (OR = 0.51, 95% CI = 0.28-0.91,  = 0.02). However, no significant differences were found in the allele and genotype frequencies of rs4986790 and rs4986791, between HCC patients and controls. Similarly, genotypic frequencies of and polymorphisms did not differ significantly between HCC patients and controls. However, haplotype analysis revealed that ACC haplotype may be protective of HCC risk in patients with HCC (OR = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.31-0.92,  = 0.02). In conclusion, our result suggest that rs11536889 polymorphism and ACC haplotype may decrease risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in Moroccan population.