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. 2021 Dec 25;13(1):54.
doi: 10.3390/genes13010054.

Evaluating TNF-α and Interleukin-2 (IL-2) Levels in African American Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma Patients

Teja Alapati  1 , Kyra M Sagal  1 , Harini V Gudiseva  1 , Maxwell Pistilli  1 , Mark Pyfer  1 , Venkata Ramana Murthy Chavali  1 , Joan M O'Brien  1
Affiliations

Evaluating TNF-α and Interleukin-2 (IL-2) Levels in African American Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma Patients

Teja Alapati et al. Genes (Basel). .

Abstract

Purpose: To establish if SNPs in TNF-α and IL-2 genes are associated with Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma (POAG) in African Americans (AA). We also determined whether plasma TNF-α and IL-2 levels could serve as biomarkers for POAG in African Americans using sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Methods: A single SNP association analysis was performed to investigate the association between potential gene variants in TNF-α and IL-2 genes and POAG in the AA population. Plasma samples from 190 African Americans (72 from normal subjects and 118 POAG cases) were obtained for TNF- α studies and 367 samples (135 from normal subjects and 232 from POAG cases) were obtained for IL-2 studies. TNF-α levels and IL-2 levels were measured by sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and analyzed to see if they reached significance in cases with POAG and endophenotypes when compared to normal subjects.

Results: The SNP, rs1800630, in TNF-α gene was found to be marginally associated with POAG. SNPs in IL-2 gene were not associated with POAG in the case-control analysis. No significant difference was found between TNF-α levels and IL-2 levels in normal and POAG case subjects in our study. IL-2 levels were inversely correlated with high IOP in POAG cases.

Conclusions: Although we found a marginal SNP association of TNF-α, assessing the expression levels of TNF-α and IL-2 may serve as promising biomarkers for African American POAG. Further investigation is needed to determine if POAG can be subdivided into more specified cohorts of the disease, which may affect plasma cytokine levels differently.

Keywords: African American; GWAS SNP; IL-2; IOP; POAG; SNP genotyping; TNF-α; cytokines; endophenotypes; gene association; plasma biomarker; sandwich ELISA.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manu-script, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Plasma TNF-α levels in Control vs. POAG subjects. (a) Plasma TNF-α Levels (pg/mL) in Control vs. POAG Cases are not significantly different, determined by an unpaired t-test on log-transformed data; p = 0.68. (b) TNF-α levels per total protein (pg/mg) are not significantly different between cases and controls, determined by a t-test on log-transformed data; p = 0.29.
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