Toll-like receptor 8 polymorphism and coronary artery disease

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play roles in innate and adaptive immune responses. Some TLRs are involved in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. Coronary artery disease (CAD) has an inflammatory and immunological basis. We investigated whether TLR8 Met1Val and TLR8-129G>C single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs rs3764879 and rs3764880) are associated with CAD in the Chinese population. We enrolled 412 consecutive patients (185 with coronary stenosis ≥50% or previous myocardial infarction and 227 controls). Ligase detection reaction was performed to detect SNPs rs3764879 and rs3764880 of TLR8. The SNP at rs3764879 is in complete linkage disequilibrium with rs3764880. No significant difference was found in genotypic or allelic frequencies of these two common SNPs between CAD cases and controls (P > 0.05, respectively). No associations existed between these two SNPs and the severity of coronary artery stenosis (All P > 0.05). These results do not support an involvement of SNPs rs3764879 and rs3764880 of TLR8 in predisposition to CAD. Z. Chen and G. Ma contributed equally to this paper.