High-producer Allele of Tumour Necrosis Factor-Alpha is Part of the Susceptibility MHC Haplotype in Severe Puumala Virus-induced Nephropathia Epidemica

The biallelic polymorphisms in the tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) gene promoter region were studied in patients with nephropathia epidemica (NE). The rarer TNF2 allele, associated with a high TNF-alpha producer phenotype, was more frequently found in hospitalized NE patients (42%) than in healthy controls (15%; p=0.0064). The putative role of TNF2 as an independent risk factor for NE is discussed.