Tuberculosis (TB) constitutes the major cause of death due to infectious diseases. Cytokines play a major role in defence against Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Polymorphisms in the genes encoding various cytokines have been associated with tuberculosis susceptibility. Household contacts (HHC) are at increased risk of developing the disease. In this study, we examined the association of IL-1b and IL-10 cytokine gene polymorphisms with risk of developing tuberculosis in TB patients, their HHC and healthy controls (HC) using JavaStat and SPSS. Multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) analyses were performed to explore the potential gene-gene interactions. The genotype and allele frequencies of IL-1b +3954C/T polymorphism did not vary significantly between TB patients and HC. GG (P < 0.005, OR = 0.219 and 95% CI = 0.059-0.735) and GA (P < 0.0001, OR = 2.938 and 95% CI = 1.526-5.696) genotypes of IL-10-1082 G/A polymorphism were found to be significantly associated with patients versus HC. HHC with CC (P < 0.03, OR = 1.833 and 95% CI = 1.1-3.35) genotype in IL-1b and GA (P < 0.0001, OR = 4.612 and 95% CI = 2.225-9.702) genotype in IL-10 were at increased risk of developing tuberculosis. MDR tests revealed high-risk genotypes in IL-1b and IL-10 based on the association model. Our results demonstrate that the polymorphisms of IL-1b and IL-10 genes may be valuable markers to predict the risk for the development of TB in household contacts.

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