Promoter region single nucleotide polymorphism of gene associates with susceptibility to allergic asthma.

Siglec-8 is exclusively expressed on mast cells, eosinophils and basophils. Possible association of six single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with susceptibility to allergic asthma in the Azeri population of Iran was investigated in this study. A total of 194 patients and 190 normal subjects were enrolled. PCR single strand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) was used to determine the genotypes of the studied SNPs. The rs36498 showed significant association with allergic asthma (odds ratio [OR]: 0.65; p = 0.022) and the T allele was found as a protective allele (OR: 0.61; p = 0.008). Also, eosinophil count in the CC genotype was significantly higher than that in the other genotypes (p = 0.026). The rs36498 is thought to influence the expression level of . Siglec-8 could be a potential therapeutic target for allergic asthma.