Tumor Necrosis Factor Promoter Polymorphism and Susceptibility to Lepromatous Leprosy

Genetically determined differences in immune responses to environmental agents may underlie susceptibility to many autoimmune and infectious diseases. Leprosy provides an example of a polarity in the type of immune response made to an infectious agent, and there is evidence that the major histocompa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of infectious diseases 1997-08, Vol.176 (2), p.530-532
Main Authors: Roy, S., McGuire, W., Mascie-Taylor, C. G. N., Saha, B., Hazra, S. K., Hill, A. V. S., Kwiatkowski, D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Alleles
Bacterial diseases
Biological and medical sciences
Case-Control Studies
Concise Communications
Disease Susceptibility
Female
Gene Frequency
Genes, MHC Class II - genetics
HLA-DR2 Antigen - genetics
Human bacterial diseases
Human genetics
Humans
Infectious diseases
Leishmaniasis
Lepromatous leprosy
Leprosy
Leprosy, Lepromatous - ethnology
Leprosy, Lepromatous - genetics
Leprosy, Tuberculoid - ethnology
Leprosy, Tuberculoid - genetics
Male
Medical sciences
Mycobacterium leprae
Polymorphism, Genetic
Promoter regions
Promoter Regions, Genetic - genetics
Tropical bacterial diseases
Tropical medicine
Tuberculoid leprosy
Tuberculosis
Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha - genetics
Tumor necrosis factors
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Summary:Genetically determined differences in immune responses to environmental agents may underlie susceptibility to many autoimmune and infectious diseases. Leprosy provides an example of a polarity in the type of immune response made to an infectious agent, and there is evidence that the major histocompatibility complex is genetically linked to leprosy type. It was found that HLA-DR2 is associated with both tuberculoid and lepromatous types of leprosy; however, a variant at position −308 of the promoter of the neighboring tumor necrosis factor (TNF) gene was increased in frequency in lepromatous (odds ratio = 3.0, P = .02) but not tuberculoid leprosy. Some studies have found higher serum levels of TNF in lepromatous than tuberculoid leprosy, and high TNF levels are found in malaria and leishmaniasis, which are also associated with this TNF allele. It is speculated that this association reflects genetic variability in cytokine production, which influences the immune response to and clinical outcome of leprosy.
ISSN:0022-1899
1537-6613
DOI:10.1086/517282