Association of inhibitory NKG2A and activating NKG2D natural killer cell receptor genes with resistance to SARS-CoV-2 infection in a western Indian population

AbstractWe have evaluated the association of polymorphisms in the intronic variable-number tandem repeat (VNTR) regions of the humanNKG2D,NKG2A, andIL-1RN genes with resistance and/or susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection in a total of 209 patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection (125 asymptomatic patients and 84 symptomatic patients with mild symptoms) and 355 healthy controls, using the PCR-RFLP method. The genotypic and allelic frequency distributions for anIL-1RN (VNTR) single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) were found to be comparable among the patient groups. Overall, in SARS-CoV-2 patients,NKG2A (rs2734440) showed a protective association in the codominant [(A/A vs. A/G): (OR = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.34 –0.83,p = 0.006)], recessive [(A/A vs. A/G+G/G): (OR = 0.6, 95% CI = 0.39 –0.92,p = 0.02)] and over-dominant [(A/A+G/G vs. A/G): (OR = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.38 –0.84,p = 0.005)] models. Similarly,NKG2D (rs7980470) showed a protective association in the codominant [(A/A vs. A/G): (OR = 0.46, 95% CI = 0.3 –0.7,p = 0.0003), codominant (A/A vs. G/G): (OR = 0.54, 95% CI = 0.31 –0.71,p = 0.027)], recessive [(A/A vs. A/G+G/G): (OR = 0.47, 95% CI = 0.32 –0.7,p = 0.0001) and over-dominant [(A/A+G/G vs. A/G): (OR = 0.56, 95% CI = 0.38 –0.82,p = 0.003)] models. At the allelic level, there was a higher frequency of the “G” allele ofNKG2D (rs7980470) in healthy controls than in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection, suggesting that individuals with the “G” allele in the intronic re...
Source: Archives of Virology - Category: Virology Source Type: research