The effect of DNA repair gene variants on COVID-19 disease: susceptibility, severity, and clinical course

Abstract

Oxidative stress (OS), which leads to DNA damage, plays a role in the pathogenesis of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We aimed to evaluate the role of DNA repair gene variants [X-ray repair cross complementing 4 (XRCC4) rs28360071, rs6869366, and X-ray cross-complementary gene 1 (XRCC1) rs25487] in susceptibility to COVID-19 in a Turkish population. We also evaluated its effect on the clinical course of the disease. A total of 300 subjects, including 200 COVID-19 patients and 100 healthy controls, were included in this study. These variants were genotyped using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and/or PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) methods. The patients were divided into three groups: those with a mild or severe infection; those who died or lived at the 28-day follow-up; those who required inpatient treatment or intensive care. There were 87 women (43.5%) and 113 men (56.5%) in the patient group. Hypertension was the most common comorbidity (26%). In the patient group, XRCC4 rs6869366 G/G genotype and G allele frequency were increased compared to controls, while XRCC4 rs6869366 G/T and T/T genotype frequencies were found to be higher in controls compared to patients. For XRCC1 rs25487, the A/A and A/G genotypes were significantly associated with COVID-19 disease. All of the patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit had the XRCC4 rs6869366 G/G genotype. In this study, we evaluated for the first time the impact of DNA repair gene variants on COVID-19 susceptibility. Results suggested that XRCC4 rs6869366 and XRCC1 rs25487 were associated with COVID-19 suspectibility and clinical course.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• DNA repair
• XRCC4
• XRCC1
• PCR
• RFLP

Acknowledgments

We respectfully remember all of the colleagues we have lost in the fight against COVID-19.

We sincerely thank Dr. Yavuz Burak Tor (Department of Internal Medicine, Memorial Bahcelievler Hospital, Istanbul) and Dr. Abdulsamet Emet (Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Yüksek İhtisas University, Private Liv Hospital, Ankara) for their useful comments during editing an earlier draft of this manuscript.

Declarations

Availability of data and materials

Data are available upon request to the corresponding author. The authors declare that data supporting the findings of this study are available within the referenced articles.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

SP conceived the study; SP, GYS, MK, AM, AA, NS, HK, UIA, TC, HK, TT and IS acquired data; SP analyzed data; NS and IS wrote the original draft; all authors revised and approved the final manuscript.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical committee approval was received (Istanbul University, Faculty of Medicine, approval date and number: 21/05/2020-84539) and the patients and control subjects gave written informed consent before the beginning of the study. The experimental procedures were based on the Declaration of Helsinki and relevant institutional regulations.

Patient consent for publication

Informed consent was obtained in written form from all of the patients to publish this work.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in this study.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.