TLR2 and age-related diseases: potential effects of Arg753Gln and Arg677Trppolymorphisms in acute myocardial infarction.

Inflammation is a key component of immune system. It is involved in both defense and pathophysiologicalevents maintaining the dynamic homeostasis of host organism. Its function iscontrolled by innate immunity genes. Both their polymorphisms and environmental conditionsgive rise to different phenotypes in human population. Proinflammatory genotype maybe beneficial in early life but not in old people. With advancing age, indeed, it increases thevulnerability and the intensity to inflammatory reactions responsible for the chronic inflammatorydiseases, such as atherosclerosis and myocardial infarction (MI). Several studies havelooked for detecting a genetic risk profile that might allow a pharmacogenomic approach toprevent and treat age-related diseases such as MI. We have evaluated the possible associationbetween two polymorphisms of TLR2 gene—Arg677Trp and Arg753Gln—and MI. However,we found no association between TLR2 polymorphisms and MI.