Filaggrin genotype associations with atopic march at children

Introduction
Atopic diseases affect children of all age groups, composing the atopic march (AM) – the progression of atopic inflammation from the skin to upper and lower airways, finally leading to bronchial asthma, with not enough elucidated genetic associations.

Aim
We performed the first study in Ukraine of the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs7927894 of filaggrin (FLG) gene associations with atopic dermatitis (AD), seasonal allergic rhino-conjunctivitis, perennial allergic rhinitis, and bronchial asthma at children.

Material and methods
Genotyping of FLG gene variants by real-time polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) in 119 atopic patients of the main group and 34 non-atopic patients of the control group aged 2–17 years, and IgE testing, were performed.

Results
Performed correlation analysis of rs7927894 FLG variants detected significant prevalence of the C/T variant in the atopic patients compared to non-atopic (OR = 2.52; p < 0.05). T/T genotype of FLG is significantly 5-fold more strongly associated with the male gender than female (OR = 5.95; p < 0.05). The dataset obtained shows a strong association of C/T genotype of rs7927894 FLG with AD and BA incidence (OR = 3.01 and OR = 4.47; p < 0.05).

Conclusions
Male atopic patients carrying the SNP rs7927894 T/T variant of the FLG gene have a 5-fold stronger significant association with atopic diseases than non-carriers of such genotype. For the first time in Ukraine there has been detected a significant association between the C/T rs7927894 genotype variant of the FLG gene in pediatric patients suffering from atopic dermatitis and bronchial asthma. A possible association (p = 0.066) between the SNP rs7927894 C/T of the FLG gene and perennial allergic rhinitis requires studies on larger patient cohorts.