Association of interleukin-10 polymorphism and malarial susceptibility in Pakistani population

Background: Malaria is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide resulting in approximately 350 to 500 million clinical cases and up to two million deaths. In Pakistan, 1.5 million cases of malaria are reported annually. The genetic factors of both host and pathogen are related to the severity of the disease. Interleukin-10 (IL-10) is an anti-inflammatory cytokine that can play a key role in plasmodium falciparum infection. Variations in IL-10 production are genetically related to polymorphisms within the IL-10 promoter region.

Objective:We investigated the association of IL-10 gene promoter -1082 G/A, -819 C/T, and -592 C/A polymorphism with malarial susceptibility in Pakistani individuals.

Methods: Ninety malarial patients and 99 healthy control subjects were enrolled. IL-10 genotyping was performed by amplification refractory mutation system-polymerase chain reaction (ARMS-PCR). Results: There was no significant difference observed in inheritance pattern of studied single nucleotide polymorphisms. All the alleles, genotypes, and haplotypes had almost similar frequencies among diseased and healthy control groups. IL-10 -1,082 homozygous G was comparatively higher in healthy subjects but difference was not statistically significant.

Conclusion: We have found no significant association between IL-10 promoter polymorphism and plasmodium falciparum infection in Pakistan. Our result from Pakistani population confirm previous association in studies from Thailand, Gambia, Republic of Mali, Tanzania, and contradict one from Kenyan population.