Association Study On MicroRNA-binding-site SNPs Of The TGF-β Signaling Pathway Genes In Allergic Rhinitis

Objective:MicroRNAs are key regulators of the gene expression post-transcriptionally. We aimed to investigate whether the polymorphisms within microRNA target sites of transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling pathway genes are associated with persistent allergic rhinitis (PER) and related phenotypes.Methods:A total of 971 ethnic Chinese Han volunteers were recruited and classified according to their allergic status. Blood was drawn for genomic DNA extraction and serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) measurement. Two HapMap single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were mapped to putative microRNA recognition sites and genotyped by TaqMan allelic discrimination assay.Results:Genotype distribution of rs1590 T>G in the 3’-untranslated regions of TGFBR1 gene has a marginally significant association with PER induced by house dust mites in general (P=0.054). Conservative estimates suggested that rs1590 TG mutunt confers a substantially increased risk of PER (OR= 1.429; 95%CI,1.063 to 1.992). This was demonstrated driving by the effect of atopic asthma in subgroup analysis (OR=1.781; 95%CI,1.107 to 2.864). Gender stratified analyses identified the rs1590 TG/GG genotypes were prominent in patients of male particularly (OR=1.896; 95%CI,1.329 to 2.705;P=0.0002). However, none of these SNPs in TGF-β pathway was correlated with serum total IgE levels. The SNP-SNP interaction information analysis indicated that the selected sets of polymorphisms had no synergistic effect.Conclusions:Our results provide evidence supporting the involvement of allele-specific regulation of TGF-β pathway genes in modifying the risk of mite-sensitized PER in this Chinese Han population.