Genetic Variation in Akt1 and Risk of Tuberculosis Among Iranian Population

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the earliest human diseases which still is considered a public health problem. Both genetic and environmental factors may contribute the susceptibility to tuberculosis. Akt is a serine/threonine kinase that has an important role in several cellular processes such as cell cycle control, cell survival, and cellular immigration. The Akt signaling pathway has an essential function in incursion and reproduction of numerous bacteria. Polymorphisms in the Akt genes are known to be related with outcome of infections. We investigated a possible association between Akt1 726 G/A polymorphism and pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in Iranian patients with PTB. Analysis of the data was done using χ2, and independent sample t-test. Genotypes analysis between the groups was done using logistic regression analyses. This case-control study was performed on 156 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and 154 healthy controls. For detection of polymorphism, we used tetra amplification refractory mutation system-polymerase chain reaction (T-ARMS- PCR) and for determination of PCR products size, we used agarose gel electrophoresis. Frequencies of genotypes GG, GA, and AA of the Akt1 726 G/A polymorphism were 45.6%, 47.4%, and 7% in the patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, and 53.9%, 37.0% and 9.1% in the control group, respectively. G allele frequency was 69.2% in patients with PTB and 72.4% in healthy controls. We observed no significant difference in allele and genotype frequencies of the Akt1 polymorphism between patients with PTB and healthy controls. Our finding showed that Akt1 726 G/A polymorphism was not associated with risk of PTB in our population. More studies are necessary to validate our results.