title: Neuronal NO synthase (NOS1) is a major candidate gene for asthma.
abstract: Asthma is a common, but heterogeneous disease, characterized by reversible airway obstruction, bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR); and is commonly associated with atopy. The messenger molecule nitric oxide (NO), that is formed by neuronal NO synthase (NOS1), is known to have a key role in bronchomotor control in animals. In humans the gene for NOS1 is located on chromosome 12q24, in a region that had been shown in family studies to be linked to the diagnosis of asthma. We identified variants of the NOS1 gene, and assessed whether there was a genetic association between these variants of NOS1 and the diagnosis asthma. A total of 410 Caucasian asthma patients and 228 Caucasian controls were screened for three bi-allelic polymorphisms in the NOS1 gene that had been detected by single-stranded conformational polymorphism (SSCP) analysis and confirmed by sequencing. Allele frequencies of a polymorphism in exon 29 of the NOS1 gene were significantly different between asthmatics and controls (P<0.05). These findings suggest that variants of the NOS1 gene may be one source of genetic risk for asthma.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Grasemann
authors.forename: C N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Yandava
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Drazen
mesh_terms: D001249:Asthma / Q000235:genetics*; D005091:Exons; D006801:Humans; D009154:Mutation; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase / Q000235:genetics*; D052248:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type I; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational
chemical_list: C496320:NOS1 protein, human; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase; D052248:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type I