Nut allergy is an important and potentially life threatening food allergy with a prevalence of one in 150 children in the UK population. STAT6 (signal transducer and activator of transcription) is an important molecule in the induction and regulation of an allergic response, which maps to chromosome 12q in a region previously linked with total serum IgE concentration and atopy in different populations. We have examined the frequency of a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the 3′UTR region of STAT6 gene in 71 UK Caucasoid patients diagnosed with nut allergy and 45 atopic patients without nut allergy using PCR-RFLP and compared these with 184 UK healthy controls. The STAT6 G allele frequency was significantly increased in nut allergy patients compared with blood donor controls (P < 0.0001, OR = 2.9, 95% CI: 1.7–4.9), which was under a recessive model (GG vs GA+AA, P = 0.0001, OR = 3.2, 95% CI: 1.7–5.8) but not in atopic patients without nut allergy. The G allele was most frequent in the severe cases and GG homozygosity was associated with the increased risk of severe reaction (OR = 3.9, 95% CI: 1.9–8.3). We conclude that STAT6 3′UTR polymorphism is associated with susceptibility and severity in nut allergic patients in our population.

Objective. To assess the influence of inducible and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (iNOS and eNOS) polymorphisms in susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods. Two hundred RA patients fulfilling the 1987 American College of Rheumatology classification criteria followed at the out-patient rheumatology clinic of the Hospital Xeral-Calde (Lugo, Spain) and 251 ethnically matched controls were studied. Patients and controls were genotyped by PCR-based techniques for a multiallelic (CCTTT)_n repeat in the promoter region of the iNOS gene and for a T/C polymorphism at position −786 in the promoter region and a polymorphism in exon 7 (298Glu/Asp or 5557G/T) of the eNOS gene. Results. No significant difference in allele or genotype frequencies for either polymorphism in the eNOS gene was observed between RA patients and controls. The overall iNOS CCTTT_n allelic or genotypic distribution did not show statistical significant differences between RA patients and controls. Interestingly, when we stratified the iNOS alleles into short (8–11) and long (12–16) repeats, significant differences were observed between RA patients and controls (P = 0.021; odds ratio = 1.37, 95% confidence interval 1.04–1.81). Of note, individuals carrying two alleles with a repeat number less than 12 (fewer than 196 base pairs) exhibited a double risk of developing RA (P = 0.005, odds ratio 2.26, 95% confidence interval 1.25–4.08). Conclusions. Significant differences in the iNOS promoter polymorphism genotype frequency between northwest Spanish RA patients and controls suggest a potential role for this polymorphism in susceptibility to RA.

Introduction.Diabetes mellitus as the most prevalent metabolic disease is a multifactorial disease which is influenced by environmental and genetic factors. In this systematic review, we assessed the association between genetic variants and diabetes/its complications in studies with Iranian populations.Methods.Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, and Persian web databases were systematically searched up to January 2014. The search terms were “gene,” “polymorphism,” “diabetes,” and “diabetic complications”; nephropathy, retinopathy, neuropathy, foot ulcer, and CAD (coronary artery diseases); and Persian equivalents. Animal studies, letters to editor, and in vitro studies were excluded.Results.Out of overall 3029 eligible articles, 88 articles were included. We found significant association between CTLA-4, IL-18, VDR, TAP2, IL-12, and CD4 genes and T1DM, HNFαand MODY, haptoglobin, paraoxonase, leptin, TCF7L2, calreticulin, ERα, PPAR-γ2, CXCL5, calpain-10, IRS-1 and 2, GSTM1, KCNJ11, eNOS, VDR, INSR, ACE, apoA-I, apo E, adiponectin, PTPN1, CETP, AT1R, resistin, MMP-3, BChE K, AT2R, SUMO4, IL-10, VEGF, MTHFR, and GSTM1 with T2DM or its complications.Discussion.We found some controversial results due to heterogeneity in ethnicity and genetic background. We thought genome wide association studies on large number of samples will be helpful in identifying diabetes susceptible genes as an alternative to studying individual candidate genes in Iranian populations.