Background: The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between vitamin D receptor (VDR ) gene polymorphism and tuberculosis susceptibility, as well as the potential interaction of host genetic factors with the heterogeneity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the population from Xinjiang, China.
Methods: From January 2019 to January 2020, we enrolled 221 tuberculosis patients as the case group and 363 staff with no clinical symptoms as the control group from four designated tuberculosis hospitals in southern Xinjiang, China. The polymorphisms of Fok I, Taq I, Apa I, Bsm I, rs3847987 and rs739837 in the VDR were detected by sequencing. M. tuberculosis isolates were collected from the case group and identified as Beijing or non-Beijing lineage by multiplex PCR. Propensity score (PS), univariate analysis and multivariable logistic regression models were used to perform the analysis.
Results: Our results showed that the allele and genotype frequencies of Fok I, Taq I, Apa I, Bsm I, rs3847987 and rs739837 in VDR were not correlated with tuberculosis susceptibility or lineages of M. tuberculosis . Two out of six loci of the VDR gene formed one haplotype block, and none of the haplotypes was found to correlate with tuberculosis susceptibility or lineages of M. tuberculosis infected.
Conclusion: Polymorphisms in the VDR gene may not indicate susceptibility to tuberculosis. There was also no evidence on the interaction between the VDR gene of host and the lineages of M. tuberculosis in the population from Xinjiang, China. Further studies are nonetheless required to prove our conclusions.
Keywords: vitamin D receptor, VDR , polymorphism, tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Beijing lineage