Identifying childhood asthma genes

Sunday, 29 November 2009 22:09

Many genes associated with asthma have been identified in mouse models. A new study has looked at 237 genes previously associated with asthma phenotypes in humans. A genome-wide association study based on these genes was carried out on close to 500 asthmatic children and their parents living in Mexico City.

The results of the study indicated 61 of the 237 genes had at least one single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) with significant association with asthma. Multi-marker analysis identified four of the genes most significantly associated with childhood asthma that might contribute to childhood asthma susceptibility in the study population.

Reference: Wu et al. 2009. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. DOI:10.1016/j.jaci.2009.09.007