Graves' disease (GD) is a common polygenic multifactorial autoimmune disease. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play critical roles in the activation of innate and adaptive immune responses. This study investigated the association of TLR7 and TLR8 gene polymorphisms with susceptibility of GD. Five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), namely, rs179019, rs179010 and rs3853839 in TLR7 and rs3764880 and rs5744088 in TLR8, were evaluated in 332 GD patients and 351 controls using High-Resolution Melting analysis. After adjusting for age, SNP rs179010 was found to decrease the risk of GD in females (OR(T vs C) = 0.64, P = 0.004). In the additive model, the risk of GD decreased significantly as the number of T alleles increased in females [odds ratio (OR) = 0.67 (0.50-0.90), P = 0.007]. The multivariate logistic regression analysis confirmed the independent contribution of rs179010 to the protective effect against GD. This study indicates that rs179010 in TLR7 may be associated with the decreased susceptibility to GD in Chinese Cantonese.
Keywords: Graves' disease; Toll-like receptor; association; polymorphisms.
© 2014 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.