Lack of the association between single nucleotide polymorphism in programmed cell death 1 gene) PD-1(and susceptibility to human lymphotropic virus infection type 1(HTLV-1) in the Iranian population

Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) requires cell-to-cell communication to cause infection. The increase in the number of cells infected with virus in turn increases the likelihood of virus transmission and progression of disease. Host immune system responses and genetics factors can affect the susceptibility to virus. Thus, in this study, for the first time the polymorphism in PD-1 gene promoter, which is involved in the negative regulation of immune responses, was evaluated in the HTLV-1 asymptomatic carriers and the healthy controls in the Iranian population in 2020.

In this case-control study, genomic DNAs of 81 HTLV-1 asymptomatic carrier  blood donors and 162 healthy blood donors in Khorasan Razavi province were extracted and the rs36084323 polymorphisms  were genotyped with PCR- RFLP method. To confirm the genotyping results, PCR products were sequenced. The results were analyzed using SPSS-22 statistical software based on chi-square test.

The frequencies of G and A alleles of rs36084323 polymorphism were 75% and 25% in the control group and 79.6% and 20.4% in the case group, respectively. Considering the G allele as a reference there was no significant difference between the case and control groups (p = 0.256).

The results of this study showed that there is no association between G/A in single nucleotide polymorphism of rs36084323 with susceptibility to HTLV-1 virus infection in the Iranian population.