Arylamine N-acetyltransferase (NAT2) gene mutations in children with allergic diseases

The overrepresentation of phenotypically slow acetylators among patients with atopic allergy has been reported in previous studies. The N-acetyltransferase coding gene has not yet been investigated in allergic diseases. This study was designed to determine the differences in the distribution of mutation frequency and genotypes that encode normal and defective activity of N-acetyltransferase in children with atopic allergies compared with healthy children. In 56 children with documented inhalational, food, or mixed allergies and in 100 healthy control children with no clinical or laboratory signs of allergy, the genotype coding for N-acetyltransferase was identified by means of the polymerase chain reaction followed by analysis of restriction fragment length polymorphism. Nucleotide transitions in the following positions were investigated: 481 C-->T, 590 G-->A, 803 A-->G, and 857 G-->A, which enabled the identification of six genotypes, including the wild-type (wt) allele, and 16 genotypes, including mutated alleles (homozygotic and herterozygotic). The statistical analysis showed significant differences in the distribution of the frequency of the occurrence of mutated alleles and genotypes between the two groups of children. In 51 children (91%) with allergy, genotypes that encode acetylation defect were found; genotypes that code for normal N-acetyltransferase were observed in only five allergic children (9%). In the control group the distribution of genotypes coding for normal and defective N-acetyltransferase activity is 38% and 62%, respectively. Thus study enabled the conclusion that the slow acetylation genotype is a genetic marker of predisposition to atopy.