Abstract

Natural resistance-associated macrophage protein 1 (NRAMP1) gene is regarded to play an important role in human vulnerability against various infections, including mycobacterial infection. This research purpose was to investigate the correlation between NRAMP1 gene expressions and protein level with susceptibility to tuberculosis (TB) infection and their contacts. NRAMP1 gene expression and protein level from 30 active TB patients, 27 latent TB infection household contacts, and 33 healthy subjects as control were examined by the real-time polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method. NRAMP1 gene expression value in the healthy group was 4.61 times higher than active TB patients (p = 0.025) and the NRAMP1 expression value in the healthy group was 4.02 times higher than in the latent TB group (p = 0.117). The mean protein level of NRAMP1 was 196.41, 199.27, and 224.70 ng/ ml in the active TB, latent TB, and healthy groups, respectively (p > 0.05). NRAMP1 expression was downregulated and protein level was lower in active TB patients than latent TB patients and healthy individuals.

Key words: NRAMP1 gene expression; protein level; pulmonary TB; latent TB.