Association between IRAK1 gene rs1059703 polymorphism and rheumatoid arthritis risk

Objectives This meta-analysis aimed to investigate the relationship between interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase (IRAK1) gene rs1059703 and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) risk.Methods The pooled odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were calculated. Funnel plot with trim-and-fill analysis was used for publication bias investigation.Results IRAK1 gene rs1059703 was not significantly associated with RA risk under dominant genetic model (OR = 1.47, 95%CI = 0.96–2.24, p = 0.071), recessive genetic model (OR = 1.14, 95%CI = 0.92–1.40, p = 0.2258), allele genetic model (OR = 1.29, 95%CI = 0.95–1.75, p = 0.0878), and codominant genetic model (OR = 1.33, 95%CI = 0.82–2.15, p = 0.2125). Subgroup analysis also suggested that IRAK1 gene rs1059703 polymorphism was correlated with RA risk under dominant genetic model (I2 = 80.9%, PQ < 0.0001, OR = 1.77, 95%CI = 1.12–2.79, p = 0.014) and allele model (I2 = 79.6%, PQ = 0.0002, OR = 1.45, 95%CI = 1.05–2.00, p = 0.026) in Caucasian. Sensitivity analysis indicated that there was no significant change in the combined OR. No publication bias was observed.Conclusion A statistically significant association between IRAK1 rs1059703 and RA risk was observed in Caucasian populations, but not in Asian populations with the available power under the current sample size. The apparent Caucasian association observed in the full dataset was not sustained after restricting analyses to HWE-compliant studies, where only a single Caucasian study remained.