Association of a Gene Polymorphism with Chronic Lymphatic Filariasis in a South Indian Cohort

Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is a parasitic infection, caused by three closely related nematodes, namely , , and . Previously, we have shown that lysate from microfilariae induces the expression of interleukin and programmed death-ligand on monocytes, which lead to inhibition of CD4 T-cell responses. In this study, we investigated associations of and programmed cell death pathway gene polymorphisms with clinical manifestation in LF. We evaluated the frequency of alleles and genotypes of (rs3024496, rs1800872), (rs3135932), (rs2834167), (rs2227982, rs10204525), (rs4143815), (rs7854413), and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 103 patients with chronic pathology (CP), such as elephantiasis or hydrocele and 106 endemic normal (EN) individuals from a South Indian population living in an area endemic for LF. Deviations from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were tested, and we found a significant difference between the frequency of polymorphisms in (rs7854413; < 0.001) and (rs2834167; = 0.012) between the CP and the EN group, whereas there were no significant differences found among , , , and SNPs. A multivariate analysis showed that the existence of a CC genotype in SNP rs7854413 is associated with a higher risk of developing CP (OR: 2.942; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.957-9.046; = 0.06). Altogether, these data indicate that a genetically determined individual difference in a non-synonymous missense SNP of might influence the susceptibility to CP.