Genetic analysis of polymorphisms in the kalirin gene for association with age-at-onset in European Huntington disease patients

The selected SNPs were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and association of SNPs with AAO was investigated with the framework of linear models in an analysis of variance and covariance.Eleven SNPs in the kalirin gene were examined in an association study in European HD patients. The ten coding SNPs under investigation were monomorphic, whereas SNP rs10934657 in the promoter region showed a minor allele frequency >1%. An analysis of covariance together with the influence of the expanded HD allele was applied in 680 HD patients. SNP rs10934657 did not affect the AAO of the examined HD population.The results did not reveal an association between the analyzed kalirin polymorphisms and the AAO in HD. However, it does not exclude other SNPs of the kalirin gene as susceptible genetic modifiers.