Abstract
Background: Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is an acute viral hemorrhagic fever caused by the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV). Nuclear factor (NF)-κB regulates the expression of hundreds of genes, including inflammatory and immunoregulatory, cell cycle regulating, and anti-apoptotic genes. NF-κBIA (IκBα) encodes an inhibitory version of the NF-κB proteins. Methods: This study is the first to investigate the association between NF-κB1 − 94W/D and NF-κBIA 3→UTR A→G polymorphisms and CCHF using the polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR–RFLP) method. Results: There was a significant difference in NF-κB1 − 94W/D genotype distribution between CCHF patients and control populations (p = 0.001). Comparison of the WW genotype with both WD and DD genotypes revealed that the difference between CCHF patients and controls was statistically significant (p = 0.043 for WD genotype, p = 0.018 for DD genotype). However, a significant deviation was found between patients with fatal CCHF and control populations (p = 0.025). The results show that patients with fatal CCHF with the DD genotype have a 4.06-times higher risk for CCHF compared to patients in the control group (odds ratio (OR) 4.06, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.11–14.87). A significant difference in NF-κBIA 3→UTR A→G polymorphisms was observed between CCHF patients and controls in both AA vs AG and AA vs GG (OR 2.04, p = 0.019; OR 2.01, p = 0.049, respectively). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that NF-κB1 − 94W/D and NF-κBIA 3→UTR A→G polymorphisms may be valuable predictors of the clinical course in CCHF disease.
Acknowledgements
We thank the Refik Saydam Hygiene Center of Ankara, Turkey for testing the serum samples. This study received no financial support from any institution.
Declaration of interest: No conflict of interest to declare.