title: Tumour necrosis factor-alpha promoter polymorphism and its association with viral dilated cardiomyopathy in Indian population: a pilot study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), a pro-inflammatory cytokine has been implicated in the pathophysiology of several viral infections. TNF-α promoter gene polymorphism is thus believed to play the modulating role in this disease pathogenesis. Several studies have shown the increased level of TNF-α in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). However, the role of the TNF-α promoter polymorphism is yet to be delineated in this regard. The present study for the first time tried to explore the association of TNF-α gene polymorphism with DCM of viral aetiology.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eighteen histopathologically proven DCM cases with viral genome positivity and 17 healthy controls were genotyped using polymerase chain reaction of TNF-α promoter gene followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism to determine the SNPs of -238G/A, -308G/A, -857C/T and -863C/A.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 18 DCM cases 4 (22.2%) were positive for adenovirus (AdV), 2 (11.1%) for enterovirus (EV) and 12 (66.7%) had co-infection. Six of the 18 DCM cases (35.3%) had -238G/A polymorphism, and 10 (55.5%) had -863 homozygous AA genotype. The association of these polymorphisms was statistically significant as compared to controls (P < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present pilot study suggests the possible association of TNFα -238G/A and -863C/A polymorphism with DCM of viral aetiology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mishra
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sarkar
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bahl
authors.forename: U N
authors.initials: UN
authors.lastname: Saikia
authors.forename: R K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Ratho
mesh_terms: D002311:Cardiomyopathy, Dilated / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D060005:Genotyping Techniques; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D010865:Pilot Projects; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000235:genetics*; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha