A genetic variant of long non-coding RNA TINCR is associated with psoriasis in the Turkish population.

Background

TINCR and H19 are long non-coding RNAs known to be involved in keratinocyte proliferation and differentiation. The objective of this study was to investigate the contribution of TINCR rs2288947 and H19 rs217727 polymorphisms to the pathogenesis of psoriasis.

Methods

The study group comprised 284 patients with psoriasis and 253 healthy controls. Real-time PCR method was used for genotyping of rs2288947 and rs217727 polymorphisms.

Results

In rs2288947 polymorphism, AA genotype (BH-adjusted p = 0.014, adjusted OR = 1.92, 95% CI 1.20‒3.09), combined genotypes GA+AA (BH-adjusted p = 0.021, adjusted OR = 1.64, 95% CI 1.10‒2.45) and A allele (BH-adjusted p = 0.014, adjusted OR = 1.39, 95% CI 1.10‒1.76) showed a significant association with psoriasis. For H19 rs217727, results were inconclusive, reflecting limited precision of the effect estimates in our study cohort (overall genotype distribution, p = 0.425), and despite high genotyping quality, control genotype distributions deviated from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.

Conclusion

Our findings indicate that the TINCR rs2288947 polymorphism may be associated with an elevated risk of psoriasis in this Turkish cohort. H19 rs217727 showed no significant association; given the breadth of the confidence intervals, this result is best viewed as inconclusive. Independent replication and functional assays will help clarify biological relevance.