Association between β-arrestin-2 and filamin-A gene variations with medical treatment response in acromegaly patients

Acromegaly is a disease that occurs as a result of excessive growth hormone caused by pituitary adenomas. Some acromegaly patients show resistance to somatostatin analog (SSA) treatment. Filamin-A (FLNA) and β-arrestins are thought to play a role in the response to SSAs. We aimed to investigate the relationship between FLNA-rs782079491 and β-arrestin-2-rs34230287 single-nucleotide polymorphisms and disease risk, as well as treatment response in patients with acromegaly in the Turkish population.

The genotypes of 110 acromegaly patients and 99 controls were determined by real-time PCR. The genotype distributions were compared with clinical data on the disease.

There was no association between the β-arrestin-2 gene polymorphism and the response to SSA treatment in acromegaly patients. For responder patients to SSAs, the β-arrestin-2-rs34230287 CT+TT genotype was associated with higher microadenoma as compared with the CC genotype (P=0.017). The FLNA polymorphism was not observed in the study group.

We showed that there was no association between the polymorphic genotypes of FLNA and β-arrestin-2 genes with acromegaly disease and SSAs response in the Turkish population. However, there was a relationship between β-arrestin-2 and some of the clinical characteristics. Furthermore, the CC genotype and the C allele are risk factors associated with tumor growth rate in acromegaly patients.