Background The Dantu blood group variant protects against P. falciparum infections but its wider consequences have not been previously explored. Here, we investigate the impact of Dantu on susceptibility to bacteraemia. Methods We conducted a case-control study in children presenting with community-acquired bacteraemia to Kilifi County Hospital in Kenya between 1998 and 2010. We used logistic regression to test for associations between the Dantu marker SNP rs186873296 A>G and both all-cause and pathogen-specific bacteraemia under an additive model. We used date of admission as a proxy measure of malaria transmission intensity, given known differences in malaria prevalence over the course of the study. Results Dantu was associated with protection from all-cause bacteraemia (OR=0.81, p=0.014), the association being greatest in homozygotes (OR=0.30, p=0.013). This protection was shared across the major bacterial pathogens but, notably, was only significant during the era of high malaria-transmission pre-2003 (OR=0.79, p=0.023). Conclusions Consistent with previous studies showing the indirect impact on bacteraemia risk of other malaria-associated red cell variants, our study also shows that Dantu is protective against bacteraemia via its effect on malaria risk. Dantu does not appear to be under balancing selection through an increased risk of bacterial infections.

中文翻译：

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肯尼亚儿童丹图血型变异与菌血症之间的关系：基于人群的病例对照研究


背景 Dantu 血型变异可预防恶性疟原虫感染，但其更广泛的后果此前尚未被探索过。在这里，我们研究丹土对菌血症易感性的影响。方法 我们对 1998 年至 2010 年间在肯尼亚基利菲县医院就诊的患有社区获得性菌血症的儿童进行了一项病例对照研究。我们使用逻辑回归来测试 Dantu 标记 SNP rs186873296 A>G 与全因和全因感染之间的关联。加性模型下的病原体特异性菌血症。考虑到研究过程中疟疾流行率的已知差异，我们使用入院日期作为疟疾传播强度的替代指标。结果 丹土与预防全因菌血症相关（OR=0.81，p=0.014），这种关联在纯合子中最大（OR=0.30，p=0.013）。这种保护作用在主要细菌病原体中是共有的，但值得注意的是，仅在 2003 年之前疟疾传播高发的时期才显着（OR=0.79，p=0.023）。结论 与先前显示其他疟疾相关红细胞变体对菌血症风险的间接影响的研究一致，我们的研究还表明丹妥通过其对疟疾风险的影响来预防菌血症。丹图似乎并没有通过增加细菌感染的风险来进行平衡选择。