ACE2, TMPRSS2, TYK2, SLC6A20, and IFNAR2 human genes variants influence
SARS‑CoV‑2 infection susceptibility
Abstract
The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes
a global pandemic named COVID-19. That virus causes a range of human
respiratory tract infections; that severity varies from relatively mild
to severe respiratory injury syndrome. It has indicated that some
individuals might offer susceptibility to SARS‐CoV‐2 infection due to
genetic factors. ACE2, TMPRSS2, TYK2, SLC6A20, and IFNAR2 human genes
are involved in the pathogenesis of coronavirus in various populations
and geographic territories; Therefore, examining the genetic variants of
these genes can determine their association with the severity of the
COVID-19 disease. In this study, the Whole-Exome Sequencing (WES)
technique was used to identify variants of the mentioned human genes
concerning the presence or absence of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection in the cohort
of 100 individuals from Iran; that may modulate viral infectivity and
make some individuals more vulnerable than others. Next, the frequency
of variants found in the Iranian population was compared with those
belonging to reference individuals from the 1000 Genomes Project,
genomAD, and ExAC. In addition, due to the extraordinary importance of
the protein’s three-dimensional structure in maintaining the optimal
function of the protein, also protein modeling was performed for the
essential found variants. The ACE2 gene showed a high level of
polymorphism. While TMPRSS2 is less polymorphic. The variants
rs759499720/ACE2، rs776459296/ACE2، rs386818798/TMPRSS2،
rs771922681/TYK2، rs753470142/TYK2، c.675G>T/TYK2،
rs147760034/SLC6A20، rs139008024/SLC6A20, and rs759744926/IFNAR2 showed
a significant association with SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19. These
variants have previously been detected in studies.