Single nucleotide polymorphism of interleukin-4 (IL-4) gene and Toil-like receptor 2 (TLR2) gene in patients with syphilis

Objective To assess the relationship of IL-4 -590C/T polymorphism and TLR2 Arg753Gln polymorphism with genetic susceptibility to syphilis. Methods The study included 56 patients with early symptomatic syphilis, 38 patients with early latent syphilis and 102 normal human controls. Real-time quantitative fluorescent PCR was used to detect the IL-4 -590C/T polymorphism, and DNA sequencing to analyze the TLR2 Arg753Gln polymorphism, in these subjects. Results The frequency of C and T alleles at 590 position of IL-4 gene was respectively 0.229 and 0.771 in patients with early syphilis, 0.216 and 0.784 in the normal controls, 0.232 and 0.768 in patients with early symptomatic syphilis, 0.224 and 0.776 in patients with early latent syphilis. GG genotype was observed at position 753 in TLR2 gene in all the subjects. No significant difference was observed for the frequency of C or T alleles at position 590 in IL-4 gene or the frequency of A or G alleles at position 753 in TLR2 gene between patients with early syphilis and normal controls or between patients with early latent syphilis and those with early symptomatic syphilis (all P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion There seems no evident association between the susceptibility to syphilis and IL-4 -590C/T polymorphism or TLR2 Arg753Gln polymorphism. Key words: Syphilis; Interleukin-4; Toll-like receptor 2; Polymorphism, single nucleotide; Genetic predisposition to diseae