LAUSR

Objectives: We aimed to investigate the association between P2X7 receptor 1513 A/C genetic polymorphisms and susceptibility to different clinical forms of active tuberculosis in Egyptian population. Methods: A case-control study enrolled 50 patients newly diagnosed as TB −25 with pulmonary TB diagnosed by positive sputum for acid fast bacilli or positive culture and 25 with extrapulmonary TB diagnosed by pathological/bacteriological/immunological studies according to the disease site− and 25 healthy controls. Blood sample was taken from all participants before starting of therapy for P2X7 1513 A/C polymorphism genotyping using PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Results: Fifty-two percent of the participants are in the age of thirteens9 with male:female ratio of 1:1. Table 1 shows the frequency distribution of the three genotypes found among the studied population−AA (the homozygote wild genotype), AC (heterozygote genotype) and CC (homozygote mutant genotype). AC and CC genotypes were significantly more frequent in the TB cases (either pulmonary or extrapulmonary TB; p 0.05), but significantly associated with smoking (p=0.036). Conclusion: P2X7 1513A/C polymorphism could be associated with TB infection in the Egyptians.