Bacteremia (bacterial bloodstream infection) is a major cause of illness and death in sub-Saharan Africa but little is known about the role of human genetics in susceptibility. We conducted a genome-wide association study of bacteremia susceptibility in more than 5,000 Kenyan children as part of the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2 (WTCCC2). Both the blood-culture-proven bacteremia case subjects and healthy infants as controls were recruited from Kilifi, on the east coast of Kenya. Streptococcus pneumoniae is the most common cause of bacteremia in Kilifi and was thus the focus of this study. We identified an association between polymorphisms in a long intergenic non-coding RNA (lincRNA) gene (AC011288.2) and pneumococcal bacteremia and replicated the results in the same population (p combined = 1.69 × 10 −9 ; OR = 2.47, 95% CI = 1.84–3.31). The susceptibility allele is African specific, derived rather than ancestral, and occurs at low frequency (2.7% in control subjects and 6.4% in case subjects). Our further studies showed AC011288.2 expression only in neutrophils, a cell type that is known to play a major role in pneumococcal clearance. Identification of this novel association will further focus research on the role of lincRNAs in human infectious disease.
【초록키워드】 Neutrophils, children, susceptibility, polymorphism, Infectious disease, Polymorphisms, Infant, Human genetics, sub-Saharan Africa, African, Kenya, Research, Genome-wide association study, Control, death, expression, association, Bacteremia, Frequency, Streptococcus pneumoniae, identification, low frequency, cell type, focus, bacteremia susceptibility, bacterial bloodstream infection, control subjects, human infectious disease, lincRNA, pneumococcal bacteremia, pneumococcal clearance, susceptibility allele, 95% CI, Wellcome Trust, non-coding RNA, Cell, healthy, recruited, conducted, subjects, occur, replicated, bacteremia case subject, control subject, 【제목키워드】 Associate,