COVID-19 and il28B gene polymophism

Since the first outbreak in China's Wuhan province that began in December 2019, the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has rapidly spread to many other regions and has become a global health threat.Significant regional differences in the prevalence and mortality of COVID-19 have been reported in some countries, resulting in the need to investigate the reasons for individual variation in COVID-19 severity and mortality rates.There are many studies aiming to investigate the relationship between ACE receptor and ABO polymorphisms and the prevalence and mortality of COVID-19. Interferons (IFN) have antiviral, antitumor and immunomodulatory effects. A new family of IFN-class interferon-lambda (IFN-λ) or type III IFNs with IFN-α/β-like antiviral activity has recently been discovered. These new types of IFNs are similar to type 1 IFNs but are relatively less effective.IFN-λ is predominantly secreted by respiratory epithelial cells and helps to increase antiviral activity in the respiratory tract.The IL28B gene encodes a protein known as interferon lambda 3 (IFN-λ3).Recent studies have revealed the relationship between viral clearance, response to treatment and complication rates and IL28B gene polymorphism in many viral infections, especially hepatitis C and hepatitis B infections.In the light of the latest information, IL28B is a candidate to be a key player in feedback mechanisms in terms of innate immune response and antiviral activity dynamics. Our study included 200 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 between the ages of 19-88 and 99 patients with negative COVID-19 between the ages of 21-84 years as the control group.The clinical symptoms and findings of patients with a diagnosis of COVID-19 were classified as mild, moderate, severe and critical based on standard criteria, and IL28B gene polymorphisms were identified and compared with each other and the control group.The samples taken from the patient and control groups were studied with the Real-time PCR method and the results obtained were statistically compared. In the results of our study, the mean age, male sex ratios, and the incidence of additional diseases were found to be statistically significantly higher in the severe/critical patient group.There was no significant difference between the gender and age distributions of the patient and control groups.IL28B rs12979860 CC genotype was detected at a higher rate in the severe/critical patient group than in the mild/moderate group (p<0.05).While the IL28B rs8099917 GT genotype was higher in the mild/moderate group, the TT genotype was higher in the severe/critical group (p<0.05).While IL28B rs8099917 GG genotype was not detected in the control group, it was detected in 8% of the patient group (p<0.05).In the critical group; Genotype distributions of surviving and deceased patients were found to be similar. It was concluded that IL28B rs12979860 CC and rs8099917 TT genotypes, which were detected at higher rates in the severe/critical group, were unfavorable genotypes in terms of clinical course, and rs8099917 GG genotype played a facilitating role in disease transmission.