1. ¹National Centre of Applied Human Genetics, School of life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital, New Delhi, India
2. ²Department of Dermatology and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Maulana Azad Medical College, Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital, New Delhi, India

Correspondence: Professor RNK Bamezai, National Centre of Applied Human Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi-110067, India. Tel: +91 11 26704518; 26103211; Fax: +91 11 26103211; E-mails: bamezai@hotmail.com, bame0200@mail.jnu.ac.in, bamezai@ncahg.org

Received 21 June 2005; Revised 1 September 2005; Accepted 21 October 2005; Published online 14 December 2005.

Abstract

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the regulatory region shared by PARK2 and PACRG have been identified as major risk factors for leprosy susceptibility in two ethnically distinct populations. We investigated the association of six SNPs present in this regulatory region with leprosy susceptibility in an Indian population. Genotyping was performed by direct PCR sequencing in 286 leprosy patients and 350 healthy controls. Our results showed that T allele of SNPs PARK2_e01 (-2599) and 28 kb target_2_1 was significantly associated with susceptibility to leprosy per se (P=0.03 and 0.03, respectively). The T allele of SNPs PARK2_e01 (-2599) showed a significant recessive effect (P=0.04) in susceptibility to leprosy in Indian population as against the dominant effect of haplotype T-C of the major risk SNPs PARK2_e01 (-2599) and rs1040079 in Brazilian and Vietnamese population. However, after bonferroni corrections, these significant differences disappeared. Haplotype analysis also showed a lack of significant association of any haplotype with cases or controls. The noninvolvement of major risk SNPs in the regulatory region of PARK2 and PACRG locus with leprosy susceptibility in Indian population highlights the differential effect of these SNPs in regulating genetic susceptibility to leprosy in different populations.