Vitamin D receptor polymorphisms as predictors of pediatric infectious disease prevalence and outcome: an overview of available evidence.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review without systematic quantitative synthesis
PubMed 42582766 · doi:10.3389/fimmu.2026.1905972
What was done
The authors conducted a narrative literature review across PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Google Scholar up to January 31, 2026. The search examined vitamin D receptor (VDR) polymorphisms in children in relation to respiratory tract infections, gastroenteritis, diarrhea, and urinary tract infections.
What was found
A total of 21 studies met criteria. FokI was the most studied polymorphism and showed differential genotype expression in children hospitalized with respiratory tract infections. No studies addressed acute infectious diarrhea, two studies linked specific ApaI, FokI, and/or BsmI genotypes to urinary tract infection risk, and three studies on sepsis reported contradictory results. The abstract provides no quantitative effect sizes or aggregate patient numbers.
Why it matters
This review collates the available literature on VDR genetic variants and pediatric infection risk, highlighting FokI as the primary candidate while identifying significant knowledge gaps.
Limits
The study is a narrative review lacking meta-analysis or systematic risk-of-bias evaluation. The abstract reports no statistical effect sizes, and available studies exhibit marked heterogeneity in age groups, ethnicity, and geography.
Cited by
- partial Children with a single nucleotide polymorphism in the vitamin D receptor have a higher mortality from respiratory tract infections.