FCGR2A Functional Genetic Variant Associated with Susceptibility to Severe Malarial Anemia in Ghanaian Children

Kathrin Schuldt (1) , Claudia Esser (1) , Jennifer Evans (1) , Jurgen May (2) , Christian Timmann (1) , Christa Ehmen (1) , Wibke Loag (2) , Daniel Ansong (3) , Andreas Ziegler (4) , Tsiri Agbenyega (3) , Christian G. Meyer (1) , Rolf D. Horstmann (1)

1 Department of Molecular Medicine, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg
2 Infectious Disease Epidemiology Group, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg
3 School of Medical Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi
4 Institute of Medical Biometry and Statistics, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Luebec

Severe malarial anemia is a major cause of mortality from malaria. Although of enormous relevance, its pathogenesis is largely unknown. Interestingly, the extent of anemia greatly exceeds the loss of erythrocytes due to direct destruction by the pathogen . Immune response against the parasite is partially mediated through the Fc receptor for immunoglobulin (Ig) G IIa (FcγRIIa, CD32). The presence of an arginine instead of a histdine residue at amino acid position 131 (H131R) in the extracellular domain of FcγRIIa reduces the affinity of the receptor for IgG and IgG isotypes but increases the binding activity for C-reactive protein (CRP).

Mots clés: Infection; Molecular genetics; Genetic epidemiology

Kathrin Schuldt, Claudia Esser, Jennifer Evans, Jurgen May, Christian Timmann, et al.. FCGR2A Functional Genetic Variant Associated with Susceptibility to Severe Malarial Anemia in Ghanaian Children. Journal of Medical Genetics, 2009, 47 (7), pp.jmg.2009.073643v1. ⟨10.1136/jmg.2009.073643⟩. ⟨hal-00557377⟩