Associations of polymorphisms in IL-6 and IL-18 with tuberculosis: Evidence from a meta-analysis

Abstract

BackgroundAssociations between polymorphisms in interleukin-6 (IL-6)/interleukin-18 (IL-18) and tuberculosis (TB) were already reported by many publications. The aim of this meta-analysis was to better clarify associations between polymorphisms in IL-6/IL-18 and TB by combing the results of all relevant publications. MethodsEligible publications were searched from Pubmed, Embase, WOS and CNKI. We used Review Manager to combine the results of individual studies. ResultsTwenty-five studies were included in this study. IL-6 rs1800795 (dominant comparison: OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.23–1.67; recessive comparison: OR 0.48, 95% CI 0.35–0.65; allele comparison: OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.27–1.62), IL-18 rs1946518 (dominant comparison: OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.04–1.35; recessive comparison: OR 0.82, 95% CI 0.71–0.96; allele comparison: OR 1.14, 95% CI 1.05–1.24) and IL-18 rs187238 (dominant comparison: OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.15–1.58; allele comparison: OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.14–1.50) polymorphisms were all significantly associated with TB in the total population. Subgroup analyses showed that positive findings for rs1946518, rs187238 and rs1800795 polymorphisms were mainly driven by the Asians. ConclusionsCollectively, this meta-analysis proved that IL-6 rs1800795, IL-18 rs1946518 and IL-18 rs187238 polymorphisms may confer susceptibility to TB, especially for Asians.