Tuberculosis risk-associated SNPs do not show association with leprosy in Chinese population.

OBJECTIVE: Leprosy and tuberculosis are chronic granulomatous infectious diseases. Besides pathogens and environmental factors, host genetic factors are substantial contribution to the susceptibility of both diseases. More importantly, leprosy and tuberculosis also share part of pathogenic mechanisms and clinical features. Therefore, we investigated the genetic association between leprosy and tuberculosis in Chinese Han population.

METHODS: A genetic association study including 46 tuberculosis susceptibility SNPs is performed in 1,150 leprosy cases and 1,150 controls from Chinese Han population using the Sequenom MassArray system.

RESULTS: There is no significant association was discovered between 46 SNPs and leprosy, in other words, there is no shared susceptibility loci between leprosy and tuberculosis in Chinese Han population according to our study.

CONCLUSIONS: Although leprosy and tuberculosis have a number of similar aspects, the shared susceptibility loci of them were not found in Chinese Han population, so it demonstrated that the genetic basis of pathogenesis of both diseases may vary greatly.