No evidence of association between polymorphisms in four genes and sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in Han Chinese

The four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs34517613, rs3849943, rs8141797 and rs6703183, each located in a different gene, have recently been associated with risk of developing sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (SALS) in European and northern Chinese populations, but no data are yet available for other ethnic groups. Here we explored the possible association between these four SNPs and SALS in Han Chinese primarily from southern and south-western China. A total of 298 individuals with SALS from three centres in mainland China and 486 unrelated healthy controls were recruited. All subjects were successfully genotyped using the ligase detection reaction (LDR). We found no evidence that any of these SNPs are associated with risk of disease in either heterozygous or homozygous individuals (p = 0.05). Subgroup analysis based on gender showed a similar lack of association. However, subgroup analysis based on spinal-or bulbar-onset SALS revealed significant differences in the genotype distributions (p = 0.009) and minor allele frequencies of rs6703183 (p = 0.004). In conclusion, it may be premature to conclude associations between these four SNPs and SALS, which should be examined in additional ethnic groups.