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CTLA-4+49 A/G polymorphism and antiglutamic acid decarboxylase antibody-associated encephalopathy in Taiwanese
Jainn-Jim Lin1, Kuang-Lin Lin2, Yu Wang3
1Division of Pediatric Critical Care and Pediatric Neurocritical Care Center, Chang Gung Children's Hospital and Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Taoyuan, Taiwan; Division of Pediatric Neurology, Chang Gung Children's Hospital and Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Taoyuan, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Clinical Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan; Chang Gung Children's Hospital Study Group for Children with Encephalitis/Encephalopathy Related Status Epilepticus and Epilepsy (CHEESE), Taoyuan, Taiwan; Molecular Infectious Disease Research Center, Chang Gung Children's Hospital and Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
Background:
Anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase antibodies are associated with encephalopathy, an autoimmune central nervous system inflammatory disease. The cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4)+49 A/G polymorphism has been shown to confer genetic susceptibility to positive anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase antibodies in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus in Japan. We aimed to investigate the association of the CTLA-4+49 A/G (rs231775) polymorphism in Taiwanese children with anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase antibody-associated encephalopathy.
Methods:
This was a case-control study from July 2011 to June 2012 performed at Chang Gung Children's Hospital in Taiwan. Genotyping of the CTLA-4+49 A/G polymorphism was performed by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism.
Results:
Seventeen patients with anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase antibody-associated encephalopathy and 97 controls were enrolled. The genotype, allele and carrier frequencies of the CTLA-4+49 A/G polymorphism were equally distributed in the patients and controls, with no significant differences between the two groups. In addition, we found a positive trend between the level of anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase antibodies and the G allele of the CTLA-4+49 A/G polymorphism, although this trend was not statistically significant.
Conclusions:
Our results suggest that the CTLA-4+49 A/G (rs231775) polymorphism does not confer an increased susceptibility to anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase antibody-associated encephalopathy in Taiwanese children.

