Background: In the era of precision medicine, individual temperature sensitivity has been highlighted. This trait has traditionally been used for cold-heat pattern identification to understand the inherent physical characteristics, which are influenced by genetic factors, of an individual. However, genome-wide association studies (GWASs) on this trait are limited.
Methods: Using genotype data from 90 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and epidermal growth factor receptor mutations, we performed a GWAS to assess the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and temperature sensitivity, such as cold and heat scores. The score of each participant was evaluated using self-administered questionnaires on common symptoms and a 15-item symptom-based cold-heat pattern identification questionnaire.
Results: The GWAS was adjusted for confounding factors, including age and sex, and significant associations were identified for cold and heat scores: SNP rs145814326, located on the intron of SORCS2 at chromosome 4p16.1, had a P-value of 1.86 × 10-7; and SNP rs79297667, located upstream from SEMA4D at chromosome 9q22.2, had a P-value of 8.97 × 10-8. We also found that the genetic variant regulates the expression level of SEMA4D in the main tissues, including the lungs and white blood cells, in NSCLC.
Conclusions: SEMA4D was found to be significantly associated with temperature sensitivity in patients with NSCLC, suggesting an increased expression of SEMA4D in patients with higher heat scores. The potential role of temperature sensitivity as a prognostic or predictive marker of immune response in NSCLC should be further studied.
Keywords: SEMA4D; cold-heat pattern identification; genome-wide association study (GWAS); non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); temperature sensitivity.