Association of polymorphism rs74810361 of IP-10 gene with infection of acute respiratory syndrome-corona virus- type 2

Abstract

Abstract Introduction CXCL10 is a pro-inflammatory chemokines that have the role in the cytokine storm and the development of severe lung impairment in COVID-19 patients. Considering there have been no studies related to the association of chemokine IP-10 polymorphism with COVID-19, in this study, this association in patients with COVID-19 was compared with healthy blood donors by PCR-RFLP method. Method: In this case-control study, 80 COVID-19 infected patients and 80 control donors were selected. After genomic DNA extraction, amplification of the desired gene fragment was done by PCR-method. In order to investigate specified polymorphism, enzymatic digestion with XbaI was done; then the defined bands were detected by electrophoresis. Also, the severity of the disease was analyzed in terms of polymorphism in the subgroup of patients. Results: Correlation analysis between the severity of the disease and IP-10 polymorphism, showed that C1596T mutant allele is associated with an increased probability to infect with the severe phase of COVID-19 disease in male patients (p- value=0.02). The presence of T allele in patients with SpO2 <88 compared to patients with SpO2 >88 was also confirmed in these patients significantly (p-value₌ 0.017). Conclusions: A significant relationship was observed between the severity of the disease and TT or CT genotype of C1596T polymorphism in the male group. However, there had no significant relationship between the T allele in SNP C1596T and the susceptibility to the covid-19 disease.