Association between TAP gene polymorphisms and tuberculosis susceptibility in a Han Chinese population in Guangdong

Tuberculosis (TB) is an important public health problem. Studies indicated that TAP plays a key role in the presentation and transport of antigenic peptides during anti-M.tb infection. Given the important biological role of the TAP gene involved in anti-M.tb infection, a family-based case-control study including 133 tuberculosis patients, 107 healthy household contacts, and 173 healthy controls was conducted to assess the association between TAP gene polymorphisms and TB susceptibility. The basic information of subjects and their blood samples were collected. Four SNPs including rs1135216, rs1057141, rs241447, and rs3819721 were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). Our results suggested that BMI, residence, bedroom crowding, indoor humidity, fitness activities, history of smoking, and TB exposure history were associated with the occurrence of tuberculosis (P < 0.05). A significant association was observed between the TAP1 rs1135216 CT/CC genotype and increased TB risk, and the ORs were 2.56 (95% CI 1.31-4.99) and 6.73 (95% CI 1.33-34.02), respectively. TAP2 rs3819721 GG genotype carriers also showed an increased risk of TB when compared TB patients to healthy household contacts. Haplotype analysis revealed that the haplotype CT at rs1057141 and rs1135216 (OR = 11.34, 95% CI 1.49-86.56; OR = 7.45, 95% CI 1.43-38.76), as well as TA at rs241447 and rs3819721 (OR = 2.20, 95% CI 1.07-4.56) had a significantly increased risk of TB. The genetic risk scores (GRS) analysis of the four loci indicated that the risk of tuberculosis increased with increasing GRS scores in TB vs HHC (P_trend = 0.010) and in TB vs HC (P_trend = 0.001). In conclusion, our findings suggested that the SNPs of rs1135216 and rs3819721 were associated with TB susceptibility among the tuberculosis-prone families in the Chinese Han population and the risk of developing tuberculosis increases with the number of risk alleles, which could help identify high-risk groups in time and take scientific preventive measures. Further cohort studies with large samples are needed to validate the role of TAP gene variants on TB susceptibility.