Falah Hasan Obayes AL‑Khikania,b*, Zaytoon Abdulridha Alkhafajia
aDepartment of Microbiology, College of Medicine, University of Babylon, Hilla, Iraq, bDepartment of Microbiology, Al‑Shomali General Hospital, Babylon Directorate Health, Babylon, Iraq
Open Access funded by Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation
Abstract
Objectives: The objective of the current study was to check the link between potential polymorphism in IL12A rs568408 and the possible risk of COVID‑19 in the Iraqi population. Materials and Methods: Allele specific‑polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique was carried out for genotyping and detection of IL12A rs568408 gene polymorphism in a case– control study of 125 severe COVID‑19 cases and 60 controls. Patients were admitted to either Marjan medical city or Al‑Sadeq hospital’s COVID‑19 wards between January and June 2022 in Iraq. The diagnosis of COVID‑19 in each patient was confirmed by severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2‑positive reverse transcription‑PCR. Results: The distribution of both genotyping and allele frequencies of IL‑12A rs568408 revealed significant differences between patients and control groups (P = 0.006 and P = 0.001, respectively). The IL12A rs568408 AA and AG variant genotypes were associated with a significantly increased risk of COVID‑19 (odds ratio [OR] = 5.19, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.13–23.82; P = 0.034) and (OR = 2.39, 95% CI = 1.16–4.94, P = 0.018), respectively, compared with the wild‑type GG homozygote. Conclusion: These findings indicate that IL12A rs568408 GA/AA variant may contribute to the risk of COVID‑19. This study is the first report about the association of IL12A rs568408 with COVID‑19.
Keywords: COVID‑19, IL12A, Polymorphism, rs568408
