title: ApaI polymorphism of vitamin D receptor gene is associated with susceptibility to HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis in HTLV-1 infected individuals.
abstract: HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) is one outcome of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type-1 (HTLV-1) infection. It remains unknown why the majority of infected people remain healthy, whereas only approximately 2-3% of infected individuals develop the disease. The active form of vitamin D has immunomodulatory effects, and allelic variants of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) appear to be associated with differential susceptibility to several infectious diseases. To investigate whether VDR single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are associated with the development of HAM/TSP, we studied four VDR SNPs in a group of 207 HAM/TSP patients and 224 asymptomatic HTLV-1 seropositive carriers (HCs) in Kagoshima, Japan, by using PCR-RFLP analysis. We found that ApaI polymorphism of VDR is associated with the risk of HAM/TSP, although this polymorphism did not affect the provirus load of HTLV-1 in either HAM/TSP patients or HCs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Geriatrics, Kagoshima University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, 8-35-1 Sakuragaoka, Kagoshima 890-8520, Japan. mineki@m3.kufm.kagoshima-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Mineki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.forename: Nobutaka
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Eiraku
authors.forename: Koichiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Usuku
authors.forename: Yasuyuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nobuhara
authors.forename: Wataru
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kodama
authors.forename: Amir H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Sabouri
authors.forename: Shuji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Izumo
authors.forename: Kimiyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Arimura
authors.forename: Mitsuhiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Osame
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000483:Alleles; D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism; D015252:Deoxyribonucleases, Type II Site-Specific / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000150:complications*; D006579:Heterozygote; D006801:Humans; D015810:Linkage Disequilibrium; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009000:Monocytes / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D019798:Neopterin / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D015493:Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics*; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D018167:Receptors, Calcitriol / Q000235:genetics*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D019562:Viral Load
chemical_list: D018167:Receptors, Calcitriol; D019798:Neopterin; D004247:DNA; C035042:endodeoxyribonuclease FokI; D015252:Deoxyribonucleases, Type II Site-Specific