Allelic variants in TLR10 gene may influence bilateral affectation and clinical course of Meniere's disease

Toll-like receptors trigger the innate immune response by activating various cell types such us macrophages and lymphocytes. We genotyped SNV of TLR3, TRL7, TLR8 and TLR10 in 863 Spanish and 150 Italian patients with Meniere's disease (MD) and 1,013 controls by using Taqman assays. Real-Time qPCR was used to measure the expression level of TLR10 in peripheral blood leukocytes. The overall dataset showed that the C allele and the CC genotype of rs11096955 in TLR10 gene were more commonly observed in controls than patients (corrected p = 1 x 10(-3), OR = 0.68 [95 % confidence interval, 0.54-0.84] for CC genotype; corrected p = 1.5 x 10(-5), OR = 0.75 [0.66-0.85] for allele C). Moreover, the CC genotype was more frequent in patients with uni- (19 %) than bilateral sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) (13 %). Logistic regression demonstrated that the time since the onset of MD, Tumarkin crises, hearing stage and rs11096955 were independent factors influencing the risk of bilateral SNHL. In addition, rs11096955 influenced hearing loss progression in patients with bilateral MD. No change in expression of TLR10 was observed according to CC, CA or AA genotypes. Our data suggest that allelic variants of TLR10 gene may influence the susceptibility and time-course of hearing loss of MD in the European population.