Effect of Chemokine Gene Variants on Covid-19 Disease Severity

ABSTRACT

Patients immune phenotype/genotype data may be useful to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in SARS-CoV-2 infection and can contribute to the identify the different levels of disease severity. The roles of chemokines have been reported in the coronavirus-related diseases SARS and MERS and they may likewise play a critical role in the development of the symptoms of COVID-19 disease. We analyzed the association of the MCP-1-A2518 G, SDF-1-3’A, CCR5-delta32, CCR5-A55029 G, CXCR4-C138T and CCR2-V64I gene polymorphisms with COVID-19 severity to further unveil the immunological pathways leading to disease severity and death. Polymerase chain reaction(PCR)/Sanger sequencing analysis was performed for detection of the variations in 60 asymptomatic and 119 severe COVID-19 patients. In our study, we found that the frequencies of MCP-1 of GA genotype and G allele carriers were significantly higher in severe COVID-19 patients than the asymptomatic COVID-19 patients (p < .0001 and p: .005, respectively). However, no significant association was found for any of the other polymorphisms with the severity of COVID-19. Our findings suggest that there is a positive association between MCP-1-A2518 G gene variants with the severity of COVID-19. However, larger studies in different population which will focus on gene expression levels will help us to understand the capability of the mechanism role.

KEYWORDS:

• Chemokines
• COVID-19 severity
• MCP-1

Author’s contributions

Selcuk Dasdemir designed the research, analysed the genotype–disease severity correlations and wrote the manuscript, Seydanur Dogan drafting the work, performed most of the experiments; Selen Zeliha Mart Komurcu helped in blood sampling and DNA isolation; Selcuk Dasdemir helped in designing the primers and optimizing experiment conditions. Hayriye Sentürk Ciftci did statistical analysis. Other authors contributed samples to the study. All authors contributed to data collection, reviewed the draft manuscript, provided their comments, and meet the journal’s criteria for authorship. This manuscript has been read and approved by all authors.

Disclaimer stating

No part of this review, including figures, was copied or published elsewhere in whole or in part.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by Istanbul University Scientific Research Fund (Grants: TYL-2021-37693).