Association between the genetic variants of base excision repair pathway genes and allergic rhinitis susceptibility in Chinese children.

Background: Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a frequent inflammatory disorder of the upper respiratory tract, which has complex patterns of inheritance. Accumulating evidence has shown the key roles of DNA damage in inflammatory diseases, and the base excision repair (BER) is the primary pathway responsible for DNA repair during inflammation.

Methods: Here, we performed a case-control study to investigate the associations between 20 potentially functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 6 BER pathway genes (, , , , , and ) and AR susceptibility in 508 AR cases and 526 controls which originated in China. The odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated for evaluating the association strength.

Results: We found that rs1052133 G > C and rs2682585 G > A polymorphisms were associated with decreased AR risk (adjusted OR = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.47-0.94,  = 0.022; and adjusted OR = 0.21, 95% CI = 0.06-0.79,  = 0.022, respectively). Stratification analysis suggested that: rs1052133 GC/CC genotype reduced AR risk in subjects among following subgroups: age ≤60 months, females, and moderate AR; rs2682585 GG genotype decreased AR risk in subjects age >60 months, and rs1052536 TT genotype increased AR risk in subjects of severe AR.

Conclusion: Our findings indicated that the genetic variants of , , and genes might affect AR susceptibility in the Chinese population, which will provide novel insight into the genetic underpinnings of AR from the DNA damage level.