Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jun;83(6):521-527.
doi: 10.1016/j.humimm.2022.03.005. Epub 2022 Mar 15.

HLA-G 14-bp insertion/deletion polymorphism and risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among Iraqi patients

Ali H Ad'hiah  1 , Noor T Al-Bayatee  2
Affiliations

HLA-G 14-bp insertion/deletion polymorphism and risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among Iraqi patients

Ali H Ad'hiah et al. Hum Immunol. 2022 Jun.

Abstract

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-G molecules are proposed to influence susceptibility to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). A case-control study was conducted on 209 patients with COVID-19 and198 controls to assess soluble HLA-G (sHLA-G) levels and HLA-G 14-bp insertion [Ins]/deletion [Del] polymorphism. Results revealed that median levels of sHLA-G were significantly higher in serum of COVID-19 patients than in controls (17.92 [interquartile range: 14.86-21.15] vs. 13.42 [9.95-17.38] ng/mL; probability <0.001). sHLA-G levels showed no significant differences between patients with moderate, severe or critical disease. Del allele was significantly associated with the risk of COVID-19 (odds ratio = 1.89; 95% confidence interval = 1.44-2.48; corrected probability = 0.001), while a higher risk was associated with Del/Del genotype (odds ratio = 2.39; 95% confidence interval = 1.25-4.58; corrected probability = 0.048). Allele and genotype frequencies of HLA-G 14-bp Ins/Del polymorphism stratified by gender or disease severity showed no significant differences in each stratum. Further, there was no significant impact of genotypes on sHLA-G levels. In conclusion, sHLA-G levels were up-regulated in COVID-19 patients regardless of disease severity. Further, it is suggested that HLA-G 14-bp Ins/Del polymorphism is associated with COVID-19 risk.

Keywords: 14-bp insertion/deletion polymorphism; 3′UTR; COVID-19; HLA-G; SARS-CoV-2.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Scatter dot plots of sHLA-G in all cases of COVID-19 and controls, and in cases distributed according to severity of disease. Horizontal lines indicate medians, while vertical lines indicate interquartile range (IQR). Significant differences were assessed with Mann-Whitney U test (to compare two groups) or Kruskal-Wallis test (to compare three groups).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Scatter dot plots of sHLA-G in COVID-19 cases and controls distributed according to genotypes of HLA-G 14-bp insertion (Ins)/deletion (Del) polymorphism. Horizontal lines indicate medians, while vertical lines indicate interquartile range (IQR). Significant differences were assessed with Kruskal-Wallis test.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Wang C., Wang Z., Wang G., Lau J.Y.N., Zhang K., Li W. COVID-19 in early current status and looking forward. Signal Transduct. Target. Ther. 2021;6(2021):1–14. doi: 10.1038/s41392-021-00527-1. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hosseini A., Hashemi V., Shomali N., Asghari F., Gharibi T., Akbari M., Gholizadeh S., Jafari A. Innate and adaptive immune responses against coronavirus. Biomed. Pharmacother. 2020;132 doi: 10.1016/j.biopha.2020.110859. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Costela-Ruiz V.J., Illescas-Montes R., Puerta-Puerta J.M., Ruiz C., Melguizo-Rodríguez L. SARS-CoV-2 infection: the role of cytokines in COVID-19 disease. Cytokine Growth Factor Rev. 2020;54:62–75. doi: 10.1016/j.cytogfr.2020.06.001. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tahaghoghi-Hajghorbani S., Zafari P., Masoumi E., Rajabinejad M., Jafari-Shakib R., Hasani B., Rafiei A. The role of dysregulated immune responses in COVID-19 pathogenesis. Virus Res. 2020;290 doi: 10.1016/j.virusres.2020.198197. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhang L., Li R., Song G., Scholes G.D., She Z.-S. Impairment of T cells’ antiviral and anti-inflammation immunities may be critical to death from COVID-19. R. Soc. Open Sci. 2021;8 doi: 10.1098/rsos.211606. - DOI - PMC - PubMed