Association of SUMO4 M55V polymorphism with autoimmune diabetes in Latvian patients.

Small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO4), located in IDDM5, has been identified as a potential susceptibility gene for type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). The novel polymorphism M55V, causing an amino acid change in the evolutionarily conserved met55 residue has been shown to activate the nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB), hence the suspected role of SUMO4 in the pathogenicity of T1DM. The M55V polymorphism has been shown to be associated with susceptibility to T1DM in Asians, but not in Caucasians. Latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) is a slowly progressive form of T1DM and SUMO4 M55V has not been studied in LADA to date. The current study aims to test whether Latvians are similar to …