Determination of Interferon-α2 Allele Composition in the Genomic DNA from Healthy Volunteers and Leukemic Patients in Japan

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Abstract
The three interferon-α2 (IFN-α2) sequences identified to date differ from each other in just two nucleotide positions, both of which result in changes in amino acids. Thus, the mature IFN-α2a protein product is characterized by a lysine residue at position 23 (AAA) and a histidine at position 34 (CAA), IFN-α2b has an arginine at position 23 (AGA) and histidine at position 34 (CAT), and IFN-α2c has arginine residues at both positions 23 (AGA) and 34 (CGT). These nucleotide variations in the DNA sequence can be distinguished by selective restriction enzyme analysis. We studied the distributions of the three IFN-α2 variants by analyzing chromosomal DNA from 103 Japanese volunteers and 33 patients with hematologic disorders. Fragments of 238 bp and 617 bp of the IFN-α2 gene containing codons 23 and 34 were amplified by PCR using specific primers, and the PCR products were analyzed with specific restriction nucleases to identify the IFN-α2 variant sequences. Only IFN-α2b gene was detected in normal volunteers, and no IFN-α2a gene was detected in Japanese subjects. However, IFN-α2c was detected in 4 of 33 (12.1%) patients with leukemia.