Association of IP-10 gene polymorphism with susceptibility to Enterovirus 71 infection

Enterovirus 71 (EV71) often causes large outbreaks of diseases among children worldwide and its pathogenesis remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between interferon-inducible protein 10 (IP-10) polymorphism in children with EV71 infection. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) were performed to analyze the gene polymorphisms of IP-10 (-1596C/T) in 58 EV71-infected and 48 control patients. The results showed that in EV71-infected patients the frequency of carrying CT + TT genotype and T allele is 10.3 and 6.0%, respectively, which is significantly lower than that of the controls (29.2 and 15.6%, respectively). Individuals with T allele had a lower risk of EV71 infection [odds ratio (OR) = 0.35, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.13-0.89]. The results of this study indicated that -1596T allele for the IP-10 gene may be a beneficial factor for EV71 infection.