Study of the Association of Functional Polymorphisms Affecting the TLR2, TIRAP, TNF, IL1B, IL1RN, IL12B and NOS2A Genes with Susceptibility to Pulmonary Tuberculosis

The genetic factors of the host may play a role in susceptibility to active tuberculosis. This is an association study based on the analysis of the allelic distribution of a polymorphism of a candidate gene between a patient population “index-case” and healthy subjects “controls”: patients with Tuberculosis (n = 102), and unaffected patients (n= 204). All polymorphisms, except the IL1RN 86pb VNTR polymorphism, were typed by the real-time PCR (TaqMan®) technique. using Applied Biosystems ™ kits. In this study, trends were found for several polymorphisms: TLR2 + 596T/C (p=0.052 for theTC allele), TNF-308G/A(p=0.072 for the GG allele)and NOS2-277T/C(P= 0.090 for the TT allele) where as no significant value or trend towards an association was found for the polymorphisms:TLR2-16934 A/T(rs4696480), TLR2+1349T/C(rs3804100 ), TIRAP 180Ser/Leu(RS8177374), TNF-1031T/C(RS1799964), TNF-238G/A(RS361525),IL1RN 86bp VNTR,IL1B-511A/G(RS3087258),IL1B+3953G/A (RS1143634), IL 12B 1188T/G(rs3212227)and NOS2-1659G / A(rs8078340. These results suggest the importance of genetic studies on tuberculosis. The identification of these major genetic polymorphisms will provide essential elements for understanding the pathogenic mechanisms involved in the response to infectious agents, and will have considerable implications for the development of new infectious disease control strategies.