Abstract
Tuberculosis (TB) caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) is a chronic infectious disease. Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) is an important cytokine imparting resistance to mycobacterial diseases. It is believed that IFN-gamma and Interleukin-10 (IL-10) play divergent roles in the host immune system against MTB infection. IL-10 is an important inhibitory cytokine and helps balancing the inflammatory and immune responses. IL-10 is involved in down regulation of Th1 cytokines, MHC class II antigen and co-stimulatory molecular expression on macrophages, while IFN-gamma results in macrophage activation allowing them to exert the microbicidal role. The objectives were to find out the association of IL-10 (-1082 A/G) and IFN-gamma (+874 A/T) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with extrapulmonary tuberculosis in ethnic Kashmiri population. A total of 100 extrapulmonary tuberculosis cases and 102 healthy controls were analyzed for IL-10 (-1082 A/G) and IFN-gamma (+874 A/T) SNPs using Allele-Specific PCR. We found a significant association of IFN-gamma + 874 'TT' genotype with extrapulmonary tuberculosis (p = 0.006) and in case of IL-10 (-1082 A/G) we found a significant association with extrapulmonary tuberculosis under recessive model (GG vs GA + AA) (p = 0.03) in Kashmiri population. IL-10 (-1082 A/G) and IFN-gamma (+874 A/T) have a significant association with extrapulmonary tuberculosis in ethnic Kashmiri population. (C) 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University.