Aims: Cysteinyl leukotrienes are inactivated by acetyl coenzyme A-dependent N-acetyltransferase (NAT). Thus, functional alterations of the NAT gene may contribute to the risk of aspirin-intolerant asthma.
Materials & methods: Asthmatics (n = 438) were categorized into aspirin-intolerant asthma (15% or greater decrease in the forced expiratory volume in 1 s or cutaneous reactions, n = 170) or aspirin-tolerant asthma (n = 268) groups. In total, 14 polymorphisms of the NAT2 gene were genotyped by a single-base extension method.
Results: The distributions of all loci of the 14 SNPs were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (p > 0.05). Among the 14 SNPs, six common SNPs (minor allele frequency >5%) in a Korean population were used for haplotype construction and further statistical analysis. The logistic regression analysis demonstrated that NAT2 -9246G>C and haplotype 2 (TCACGG) were significantly associated with the risk of aspirin-intolerant asthma. The rare allele frequencies of the SNP and Ht2 were significantly higher in the aspirin-intolerant asthma group than in the aspirin-tolerant asthma group (p(corr) = 0.03 and p(corr) = 0.02 in codominant model).
Conclusion: In a large genetic epidemiology study of aspirin-intolerant asthma in a Korean population, genetic polymorphisms of NAT2 were found to be related to a risk of aspirin hypersensitivity among asthmatics.