The Association of IL7R rs6897932 with Risk of Multiple Sclerosis in Southern Chinese

Objective: To investigate the association between IL7R rs6897932 and multiple sclerosis (MS) in southern Chinese people. Methods: In total, 147 MS patients and 530 healthy controls were recruited according to the revised McDonald criteria. The TaqMan method was used for genotyping. Results: With genetic models, we can observe that the additive model, the dominant model, and the recessive model of IL7R rs6897932 were significantly associated with MS [additive model: p=0.032; dominant model (adjusted): p<0.001, OR=3.61 (95% CI 2.25-5.83); recessive model (adjusted): p<0.001, OR=6.80 (95% CI 3.49-13.89)]. Conclusion: Our results suggest that IL7R rs6897932 is associated with MS in a southern Chinese population. More and larger MS studies to explore the genetic risk factors of MS are warranted.