Study identifies genomic regions associated with cholera susceptibility

An international research team has used a novel approach to identify genetic factors that appear to influence susceptibility to cholera. The findings by investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the Broad Institute and the International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) indicate the importance of pathways involved in regulating water loss in intestinal cells and of the innate immune system in the body’s response to the bacteria that causes cholera, which affects from 3 to 5 million people each year and causes more than 100,000 deaths. “We sought to understand cholera by studying the genetics of a population that has been affected by the disease for centuries – people in the Ganges River Delta of Bangladesh,” says Regina LaRocque, MD, of the MGH division of Infectious Diseases, a co-senior author of the report receiving online publication in Science Translational Medicine. “Our findings are just a first step, but they demonstrate...