Analysis of the variations in IL-28RA gene and their association with allergic rhinitis

IL-28RA is one of the important candidate genes for complex trait of genetic diseases, but there is no published information of the genetic variation in this gene. We scanned the seven exons and their boundary introns sequence of IL-28RA including the promoter regions to analyze genetic variation sites, and identified eighteen single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and two variation sites. We chose seven SNPs (g.-1193A > C, g.-30 C > T, g.17654 C > T, g.27798 A > G, g.31265 C > T, g.31911 C > T and g.32349 G > A) of them for large sample size genotyping, and assessed the association of genotype and allele frequencies of these SNPs between allergic rhinitis patients and non-allergic rhinitis controls. We also compared the genotype frequencies between Korean controls and Han Chinese control or Korean Chinese control. We investigated the frequencies of haplotype constructed by these SNPs between allergic rhinitis patients and non-allergic rhinitis controls. Our results suggested that the g.32349 G > A polymorphism of IL-28RA might be associated with susceptibility to allergic rhinitis (P = 0.032), but seems to have no relationship with serum total IgE levels. The haplotype frequencies by these SNPs also show significant association between controls and allergic rhinitis patients.