TRPV1 genetic polymorphisms and risk of COPD or COPD combined with PH in the Han Chinese population

COPD is a common chronic disease with genetic predisposition. TRPV1 is mainly expressed in peripheral neuron which widely exists in entire respiratory tract. In present study, we aimed to study the relationship between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of transient receptor potential vanilloid-1 (TRPV1) and the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or COPD combined with pulmonary hypertension (PH) in Chinese Han population. A total of 1019 individuals, including 506 healthy volunteers and 513 COPD patients (150 patients combined with PH among them) were recruited in this study. Genomic DNA were extracted and sequenced. Genotype and allele frequencies of the TRPV1 SNPs among COPD, COPD combined with PH and control groups were compared. Then, the association of TRPV1 SNPs and smoking status were analyzed. Genotype frequencies of SNP rs3744683 had a significant difference in COPD patients with PH patients compared with control (p = 0.006) or COPD patients without PH patients (p = 0.016). Likewise, SNP rs3744683 was remarkedly associated with the risk of COPD (p = 0.004) in current-smoker groups which phenomenon was not observed in nonsmoker or former-smoker groups. Compared with the control group, there was a significant difference for the distribution of SNP rs4790521 alleles in the COPD group (p = 0.041). For further, logical regression analysis showed that SNP rs3744683 genotype of "TC" was a protective factor for PH in COPD patients compared with the genotype of "TT" (OR = 0.364, 95%CI = 0.159-0.829, p = 0.016). Our findings firstly revealed the relevance between TRPV1 SNPs and the risk for COPD/COPD combined with PH.