Status of serine tyrosine kinase at germline and expressional levels in asthma patients

Asthma is a disease marked by inflammation of airways with an increasing incidence rate worldwide especially among Asian population. Spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) is known to be involved in regulation of such inflammation response and thereby rendering its inevitable importance among asthma patients. DNA extraction followed by PCR and sequencing was performed for genomic analysis, mRNA analysis was done by RT PCR whereas Western blot and ELISA was used for protein study. Image J and UNAFOLD were also used for Bioinformatics analysis.The mean age of patients and controls were 31.1±9.3 and 30.4±6.1 years respectively. Results of sequencing showed nonsense exonic mutations in exon 3 at g.25710G>A and g.25722G>A positions. Substitution mutations in introns were also found at g.25827G>A (intron 3), g.63425C>T (intron 8) and g.63445T>G (intron 8). Significantly increased levels of IgE and significantly decreased expression of Syk at transcriptional level was found in patients compared to controls. The western blot results of asthmatic samples and healthy controls revealed that Syk has comparatively low expression in diseased individual’s PBMCs. SYK has been found to be altered in DNA, mRNA and protein expression in asthma patients among Pakistani population therefore patients should be treated according to their Syk status for more effective recovery.