Abstract
BackgroundIFITM3 has been suggested to be associated with infection in some ethnic groups. Diabetes and hypercholesterolemia are also important clinical conditions that can predispose individuals to infection. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of rs12252 C polymorphism, BMI, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia with mild flu in an Iranian population.MethodsWe conducted a case-control study, including 79 mild flu and 125 flu-negative individuals attending primary care centers of three provinces of Iran (i.e, Markazi, Semnan, and Zanjan). Pharyngeal swab specimens were collected from all participants, and were subjected to RNA and DNA extractions for Real-time PCR and PCR tests. All PCR products were then sequenced to find T/C polymorphisms in the rs12252 region. Data on demographic, anthropometric, and clinical variables were collected from participants’ medical records available in the primary care centers. The data was analyzed using DNASIS (v. 2.5) and Stata (v.11) software.ResultsAll participants were of Fars ethnic background. The allele frequency for rs12252-C was found to be 9.49% among cases and 2.40% among controls. Carriers of the rs12252 C allele (CT + CC genotypes) showed 5.92 folds increase in the risk of mild flu comparing to the T allele homozygotes (P value: 0.007). We also found a significant positive association between rs12252 C allele heterozygote and mild flu (OR: 7.62, P value: 0.008), but not in C allele homozygote group (OR: 2.71, P value: 0.406). Similarly, we did not find a significant association between mild flu and BMI (OR: 1.06, P value: 0.087), diabetes (OR: 0.61, P value: 0.392), and hypercholesterolemia (OR: 0.50, P value: 0.393) in multivariable logistic regression.ConclusionsThis is the first study evaluating the association between rs12252 polymorphisms, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, and BMI and susceptibility to mild flu in an Iranian population. Our results suggest a significant positive association between mild flu and rs12252 C allele heterozygous and carriage. Future replication of the strong association observed here between rs12252 C allele carriage and mild flu might candidate this polymorphism as a genetic marker for early screening of susceptibility to mild flu. Lack of significant association between C allele homozygous and mild flu, observed in this study, might be the result of small sample size in this group.Trial registrationIR.PII.REC.1395.3.
Highlights
IFITM3 has been suggested to be associated with infection in some ethnic groups
We investigated the association between mild flu and IFITM3 rs12252 variant, BMI, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia in an Iranian population
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study evaluating the association between IFITM3 rs12252 polymorphism, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia and BMI with susceptibility to mild flu in an Iranian sample
Summary
IFITM3 has been suggested to be associated with infection in some ethnic groups. Diabetes and hypercholesterolemia are important clinical conditions that can predispose individuals to infection. The study of the host genetic factors involved in susceptibility to influenza is a promising strategy that may identify potential therapeutic targets [18]. Systematic investigation of the association between host genetic factors and the occurrence of influenza is of pivotal importance. In 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) identified as priority the studies which considered the role of host genetic factors on susceptibility to severe flu [17]. Viral proteins and viral nucleic acids are detected by pathogen recognition receptors (PRRs). These recognition patterns activate signaling transduction pathways that trigger production of type I interferon and other related cytokines [3, 25]. Type I interferon elevates the expression of hundreds of genes, named interferon stimulated genes (ISGs), that weaken virus replication by a variety of mechanisms [3, 25]
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