Association of Genetic and Allelic Variants of Von Willebrand Factor (VWF), Glutathione S-Transferase and Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha with Ischemic Stroke Susceptibility and Progression in the Saudi Population

Mohammed M Jalal; Rashid Mir; Abdullah Hamadi; Malik A Altayar; Imadeldin Elfaki; Jameel Barnawi; Almohanad A Alkayyal; Mouminah Amr; Jabali Hadeel; Mamdoh S Moawadh; Basim S O Alsaedi; Marwan H Alhelali; Aadil Yousif

doi:10.3390/life13051200

Association of Genetic and Allelic Variants of Von Willebrand Factor (VWF), Glutathione S-Transferase and Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha with Ischemic Stroke Susceptibility and Progression in the Saudi Population

Life (Basel). 2023 May 17;13(5):1200. doi: 10.3390/life13051200.

Authors

Mohammed M Jalal^{1

2}, Rashid Mir^{1

2}, Abdullah Hamadi^{1

2}, Malik A Altayar^{1

2}, Imadeldin Elfaki³, Jameel Barnawi^{1

2}, Almohanad A Alkayyal¹, Mouminah Amr⁴, Jabali Hadeel⁵, Mamdoh S Moawadh¹, Basim S O Alsaedi⁶, Marwan H Alhelali⁶, Aadil Yousif¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medical Laboratory Technology, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, University of Tabuk, Tabuk 71491, Saudi Arabia.
² Prince Fahad Bin Sultan Chair for Biomedical Research, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, University of Tabuk, Tabuk 71491, Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Tabuk, Tabuk 71491, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Neuroscience Center, King Abdullah Medical Complex, Jeddah 23816, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Radiology, King Abdullah Medical Complex, Jeddah 23816, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Department of Statistics, University of Tabuk, Tabuk 71491, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Stroke is a key cerebrovascular disease and important cause of death and disability worldwide, including in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). It has a large economic burden and serious socioeconomic impacts on patients, their families and the community. The incidence of ischemic stroke is probably increased by the interaction of GSTT1 and GSTM1 null genotypes with high blood pressure, diabetes and cigarette smoking. The roles of VWF, GSTs and TNF-alpha gene variations in the induction of stroke are still uncertain and require further examination. In the current study, we studied the associations of SNPs in the genes VWF, GSTs and TNF-alpha with stroke in the Saudi population. Genotyping was performed using the ARMS -PCR for TNF-alpha, AS-PCR for VWF and multiplex PCR for GSTs. The study included 210 study subjects: 100 stroke cases and 110 healthy controls. We obtained significant distributions of VWF rs61748511 T > C, TNF-alpha rs1800629 G > A and GST rs4025935 and rs71748309 genotypes between stroke cases and the healthy controls (p < 0.05). The results also indicated that the TNF-alpha A allele was associated with risk of stroke with odd ratio (OR) = 2.22 and risk ratio = RR 2.47, p < 0.05. Similarly, the VWF-TC genotype and C allele were strongly linked with stroke with OR = 8.12 and RR 4.7, p < 0.05. In addition, GSTT1 and GSTT1 null genotype was strongly associated with stroke predisposition with OR = 8.30 and RR = 2.25, p < 0.0001. We conclude that there is a possible strong association between the VWF-T > C, TNF-alpha G > A, GSTT1 gene variants and ischemic stroke susceptibility in the Saudi population. However, future well-designed and large-scale case-control studies on protein-protein interactions and protein functional studies are required to verify these findings and examine the effects of these SNPs on these proteins.

Keywords: amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS-PCR); atherosclerosis; cerebrovascular disease; glutathione S-transferase (GST); ischemic stroke; tumor necrosis factor alpha; von Willebrand factor (VWF).

Grants and funding

This project was funded by the University of Tabuk, Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR), project No 0311-1440-S.