Immunogenetic Study of Human RHINOVIRUS and TLR 1 AND TLR 2 Gene Polymorphism in Children and Infants Suffering from Acute Respiratory Tract Infection

Abstract

Background: Acute respiratory infections (ARI) are the leading cause of mortality in children under five years of age worldwide and most of these deaths are due to bronchiolitis and pneumonia. Recent evidence from studies using genome detection systems such as polymerase chain reaction or micro-array technology show that, in most cases, these deaths are caused or precipitated by viruses. Many studies showed that RV is one of the leading causes of pneumonia, bronchiolitis and other form of severe respiratory disease, standing side by side with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in children and influenza in elderly. TLR 1 (rs5743557) and TLR2 (rs1898830) gene polymorphism may be as risk factor for RTI. Objective: Detection of the HRV and TLR1 and TLR2 gene polymorphism in Iraqi patients less than 10 years which suffering from RTI.

 Patients and Methods: 100 specimens including: 75 specimens of children suffering from RTI & 25 specimens from apparently healthy children as a control group. Nasopharyngeal and/or throat swabs as well as blood (whole blood & serum) samples were collected and processed for screened for human RHINOVIRUS (HRV) and TLR1 and TLR2 gene polymorphism.

Results: HRV was detected 56% (28out of 50 cases) by using RT PCR. No HRV-signals were reported in the control samples. The results of genetic Polymorphism of TLR 1 (rs5743557) and TLR2 (rs1898830) were 64% (48out of 75 patients) and 50.7% (38 out of 75) positive signal respectively by PCR. Statistically, A strong positive relationship (with highly Sig. correlation) was found between HRV and TLR 1 (rs5743557) and TLR2 (rs1898830) gene polymorphism in ages patients have ARTI.

Conclusions: human rhinovirus might be role in the respiratory tract infection and TLR1 and TLR2 gene polymorphism as risk factor in the Iraqi infants and young children patients suffering from severe RTI.