Lectin Complement Protein Collectin 11 (CL-K1) and Susceptibility to Urinary Schistosomiasis

Urinary schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease endemic in many sub saharan -african countries. collectin kidney 1 (cl-k1,encoded by colec11 on chromosome 2p25.3),a member of the vertebrate c-type lectin super family,has recently been identified as pattern-recognition molecule (prr) of the lectin complement pathway. cl-k1 is preferentially expressed in the kidneys,but also in other organs and it is considered to play a role in host defense to some infectious agents. schistosome teguments are fucosylated and cl-k1 has,through its collagen-like domain,a high binding affinity to fucose. we utilized a nigerian study group consisting of 167 schistosoma haematobium infected individuals and 186 matched healthy subjects,and investigated the contribution of cl-k1 deficiency and of colec11 polymorphisms to infection phenotype. higher cl-k1 serum levels were associated with decreased risk of schistosome infection (pcorr = 0.0004). cl-k1 serum levels were differentially distributed between the colec11 genotypes and haplotypes observed. the non-synonymous variant p.r216h was associated with the occurrence of schistosomiasis (or = 0.44,95%ci = 0.22–0.72,pcorr = 0.0004). the reconstructed colec11*tcca haplotypes were associated with higher cl-k1 serum levels (p = 0.002) and with decreased schistosomiasis (or = 0.38,95%ci = 0.23–0.63,pcorr = 0.0001). in agreement with findings from our earlier published study,our findings support the observation that cl-k1 and their functional variants may be host factors associated with protection in schistosomiasis and may be a useful marker for further investigations. © 2015 antony et al.