Screening of interleukin 17F gene polymorphisms and eight subgingival pathogens in chronic periodontitis in Libyan patients

ABSTRACT

Background: Chronic periodontitis (CP) is triggered by periodontal pathogens influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Recent studies have suggested that anti-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin 17 (IL−17) play a prominent role in the pathogenesis of CP.

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the association between eight sub-gingival pathogens and interleukin 17F (IL−17F) gene single nucleotide polymorphisms with CP among Libyans.

Materials and Methods: A case–control study was conducted on 100 individuals between the ages of 25–65 years. Species-specific 16S rRNA primers for each pathogen were used in a multiplex PCR reaction to detect sub-gingival pathogens from a paper point sample. DNA was also extracted from buccal swab samples and IL−17F polymorphisms were detected by Sanger sequencing.

Results: A highly significant association between the seven sub-gingival pathogens and CP, (p-value 0.0001) and a high prevalence of P. intermedia (100%), T. forsythia (96%), T. denticola and E. corrodens (92%), P. gingivalis (82%), C. rectus (74%), P. nigrescens (72%), A. actinomvcetcmcomitans (40%) were found in the case group compared with control group. A novel variant in the c. *34 G>A in IL−17F gene caused a change in glutamic amino acid to lysine amino acid, position on chromosome number (6) in the third exon, mRNA/genomic position 597, found in 14.6% of CP patients (p-value = 0.010) while the IL−17F (rs763780) SNP showed no association with CP (p-value = 0.334).

Conclusion: P. intermedia appear as keystone pathogen for CP in the Libyan population. A novel variant in the IL−7F gene may be related to the severity of CP.

KEYWORDS:

• chronic periodontitis
• sub-gingival pathogens
• novel SNP
• IL-17F
• polymorphism

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the staff of the Genetic Engineering Department at the Libyan Biotechnology Research Center in Tripoli, Libya for their valuable help and guidance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

The research team have submitted the sequence of IL−17 F novel SNP (c. *34 G>A) accession number OL632297 and sequence of IL−17 F (rs763780) accession number OL632296 in NCBI database.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.