Association between RANTES functional polymorphisms and tuberculosis in Hong Kong Chinese

Chemokines play a major role in leukocyte recruitment during the formation of tuberculous granulomas. We studied the association between genetic polymorphisms of three chemokines, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), RANTES (regulated on activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted) and macrophage inflammatory protein-1α (MIP-1α), and tuberculosis (TB). The distribution of five functionally significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), MCP-1 −2518A/G, RANTES −403G/A, −28C/G and In1.1T/C as well as MIP-1α +459C/T was not found to be different between patients with TB and healthy control subjects of the Hong Kong Chinese population. However, differences in linkage disequilibrium (LD) of the SNPs of RANTES and in distribution of the haplotypes of RANTES between patients with TB and healthy controls (P<0.0001) were found. Two risk haplotypes of RANTES, A-C-T and G-C-C, at positions −403, −28 and In1.1, respectively, were identified. Furthermore, combining the genotypes of RANTES −403 and In1.1, two diplotypes GA/TT (P<0.001) and GG/TC (P<0.0001) showed strong association with TB. Our findings support the association between RANTES functional polymorphisms and TB.