No evidence for association between SLC11A1 and visceral leishmaniasis in India

Nine polymorphisms (rs34448891, rs7573065, rs2276631, rs3731865, rs17221959, rs2279015, rs17235409, rs17235416, rs17229009) that tag linkage disequilibrium blocks across SLC11A1 were genotyped in primary family-based (313 cases; 176 families) and replication (941 cases; 992 controls) samples. Family- and population-based analyses were performed to look for association between SLC11A1 variants and VL. Quantitative RT/PCR was used to compare SLC11A1 expression in mRNA from paired splenic aspirates taken before and after treatment from 24 VL patients carrying different genotypes at the functional promoter GTn polymorphism (rs34448891).No associations were observed between VL and polymorphisms at SLC11A1 that were either robust to correction for multiple testing or replicated across primary and replication samples. No differences in expression of SLC11A1 were observed when comparing pre- and post-treatment samples, or between individuals carrying different genotypes at the GTn repeat.This is the first well-powered study of SLC11A1 as a candidate for VL, which we conclude does not have a major role in regulating VL susceptibility in India.Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a debilitating vector borne disease caused by parasites of the Leishmania donovani complex. Prevalence is high in Bihar State in India, indicating a need to understand more about disease pathogenesis to facilitate disease control. Population based epidemiological surveys suggest that 80-90% of individuals infected with L. donovani show no clinical symptoms [1,2]. Familial clustering, and the range of clinical outcomes from asymptomatic to fatal disease within and between ethnic groups sharing similar risk factors in Brazil [3,4] and Sudan [5,6], support a contribution of host genotype to susceptibility. Candidate gene and genome-wide linkage studies have highlighted a number of genes/gene regions contributing to disease susceptibility (reviewed [7]). However, replication between study sites has not been ob