These variants were further validated by Sanger sequencing (5 variants, MRPS5 rs200730619, KRT39 rs17843022, SMARCA4 rs533671711, NSMAF rs142542935 and NSMAF rs140438385) or KASP genotyping (20 variants) in a subgroup of 55 patients with leprosy to further narrow down the number of candidate variants. Here, NSMAF is linked to leprosy.