A single nucleotide polymorphism within HOX Transcript Antisense RNA (HOTAIR) is associated with risk of psoriasis

Recent studies have shown participation of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. Several mechanisms might be involved in the dysregulation of expression of lncRNAs in patients with psoriasis, among them is the presence of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) which modulate expression or function of these transcripts. In the present work, we genotyped three SNPs (rs12826786, rs1899663 and rs4759314) of the HOX Transcript Antisense RNA (HOTAIR) in 286 patients with psoriasis and 300 control subjects. The rs12826786 was associated with risk of psoriasis in dominant model (TC + TT vs. CC: OR (95% CI) = 1.59 (0.1.14-2.22), adjusted p-value = .02). In the allelic model, T allele of this SNP significantly increased the risk of psoriasis compared with the C allele (OR (95% CI) = 1.35 (1.06-1.71), adjusted p-value = .04). Other SNPs were not associated with risk of psoriasis in any inheritance model. No significant difference was found in haplotype frequencies between cases and controls. The current work shows association between a genomic variant within HOTAIR and risk of psoriasis. The clinical significance of this finding should be assessed in future studies.