INTRODUCTION

has been identified as a risk factor to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) primarily in Asian or European-derived populations. However, this finding has not been evaluated in other populations such as Latin-Americans, except for Colombians. On the other hand, single nucleotide variants (SNVs) have been scarcely studied in RA patients.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to determine whether the BLK rs2736340T/C, rs13277113A/G, and BANK1 rs10516487G/A (R61H) and rs3733197G/A (A383T) polymorphisms are risk factors to RA in a sample of patients from Central Mexico.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We studied 957 women; 487 controls and 470 patients with RA by means of a TaqMan® SNP genotyping assay with fluorescent probes for the rs13277113A/G, rs2736340T/C and 10516487G/A (R61H) and rs3733197G/A (A383T) variants.

RESULT

The rs2736340T/C and rs13277113A/G variants were associated with risk for RA: C vs T; OR 1.39, = 0.001, and G vs A; OR 1.37, = 0.004, respectively. In addition, there was also an association between R61H and RA: A vs G; OR 1.49, = 0.003, but no with A383T. We also identified an interaction significant between genotypes of rs2736340T/C- rs10516487G/A and RA: OR 1.65, = 0.0001.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data suggest that both and confer susceptibility to RA in Mexican patients. The individual association of rs1054857G/A with RA had not been previously reported in a particular population (except for pooled patients from several countries), therefore, our study presents the first evidence of association between this variant and RA.