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
. 2025 Mar;23(1):100473.
doi: 10.1016/j.jgeb.2025.100473. Epub 2025 Mar 4.

MEFV gene variations in COVID-19 pneumonia patients (Pilot study)

Noha A Radwan  1 , Heba El Gohary  2 , Dalia Hamed  2 , Noha M Khalil  3 , Dalia Abdelfatah  4 , Amal Abdel Wahab  2 , Marwa Mahmoud Elsharkawy  2
Affiliations

MEFV gene variations in COVID-19 pneumonia patients (Pilot study)

Noha A Radwan et al. J Genet Eng Biotechnol. 2025 Mar.

Abstract

Background: The emergence of worldwide pandemic caused by coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a radical change in everyday life. Patients diseased with FMF show manifestations and labs highly similar to COVID infected patients. In the current study, we evaluate the presence of variants in exon 10 of MEFV gene and the relation with severity of symptoms in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.

Method: Thirty-nine COVID-19 infected patients admitted to Kasr Alainy medical school were divided into two groups moderate and severe. Sanger sequencing of exon 10 in MEVF gene was scanned in the 39 subjects.

Results: We identified variants in 10 out of 39 patients (26 %) with heterozygous variants in 9 patients (23 %) and homozygous in one patient (2.5 %). The most frequent variant found was the silent variant p.(P706 = ) (12.9 %) followed by missense variants p.(A744S) (7.7 %) and p.(V726A) (5.1 %). Striking result was that 90 % of patients with MEFV variants had moderate symptoms and without progression into the severe form of COVID-19 pneumonia.

Conclusion: Our results indicated that the presence of variants in MEFV gene (either benign or of uncertain significance) could have a role in determination of COVID-19 severity.

Keywords: ARDS; COVID-19; MEFV gene; Sanger Sequencing.

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
Shows different variants in exon 10 of MEFV gene.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Showsp.P706 = in exon 10 of MEFV gene.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Diamanti A.P., Rosado M.M., Pioli C., Sesti G., Laganà B. Cytokine release syndrome in COVID-19 patients, a new scenario for an old concern: The fragile balance between infections and autoimmunity. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2020;21(9):1–18. doi: 10.3390/ijms21093330. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. SeyedAlinaghi S.A., Mehrtak M., MohsseniPour M., et al. Genetic susceptibility of COVID-19: a systematic review of current evidence. Eur. J. Med. Res. 2021;26(1):46. doi: 10.1186/s40001-021-00516-8. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Velavan T.P., Pallerla S.R., Ruter J., et al. Host genetic factors determining COVID-19 susceptibility and severity. EBioMedicine. 2021;72 doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103629. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Girija A.S.S., Shankar E.M., Larsson M. Could SARS-CoV-2-induced hyperinflammation magnify the severity of Coronavirus Disease (CoViD-19) leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome? Front. Immunol. 2020;11:1–5. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.01206. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhang C., Wu Z., Li J.W., Zhao H., Wang G.Q. Cytokine release syndrome in severe COVID-19: interleukin-6 receptor antagonist tocilizumab may be the key to reduce mortality. Int. J. Antimicrob. Agents. 2020;55(5) doi: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.105954. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources