Assessment of the relationships between IL-17A polymorphisms and the risk to acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Saudi population

The most studied IL-17 family member is IL-17A. It has been implicated in the pathogenesis of many disorders, including inflammatory, autoimmune and cancer disorders. However, the role of this cytokine in the pathophysiology of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) remains poorly studied. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of IL-17A gene single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the occurrence of ALL in Saudi population. The current study included 136 patients with ALL and 114 age and gender-matched healthy controls. The relationship between three functional SNPs of IL-17A gene; rs3748067, rs3819025 and rs8193036 was assessed in both ALL and healthy control following five inheritance models. In addition. the level of IL-17A mRNA was analyzed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The results revealed a statistically significant protective effect of the rs3748067 CT genotype against ALL in dominant, overdominant and additive models (p < 0.05). No association was observed between the rs3819025, and rs8193036 and the risk to develop ALL (P > 0.05). Haplotype analysis showed association of CTG (OR = 0.52, 95 %CI 0.29–0.94, p = 0.03), and TCG (OR = 0.45, 95 %CI 0.25–0.81, p = 0.009) of rs3748067, rs8193036 and rs3819025 with higher risk of ALL. Our results showed that IL-17A promoter rs3748067 variant may reduces the risk to ALL.