Periodontitis is a chronic oral pathology caused by impaired immune response against oral bacteria resulting in tissue inflammation and damage. Among the members of innate immune response, the first line of defence against pathogens, inflammasomes are macro-molecular protein complexes that can be activated by different stimuli, comprised bacteria infections. Different proteins are involved in inflammasoma formation; the most important are molecules belonging from the family of nucleotide-binding and oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptors (NLRs). In this study, polymorphisms within 20 NLRs related genes were analysed in order to investigate their possible association with periodontitis susceptibility in a population from North-East Italy. One polymorphism, namely rs289723, in NLRC5 gene resulted associated with chronic slight and chronic localized periodontitis susceptibility, specifically A/A genotype was correlated with increased risk of disease development. Our study, for the first time, identified the possible involvement of a polymorphism within NLRC5 gene as a possible biomarker for periodontitis condition susceptibility among Italian individuals from genetic isolates.
