Association of MCP-1 promotor polymorphism with disease severity of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever.

Bagci, Binnur; Bagci, Gokhan; Buyuktuna, Seyit Ali; Elaldi, Nazif

Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) is a thick-borne viral zoonotic disease. Pathogenesis and the reason why cases have a mild or severe course in CCHF have not been explained. In this study, we investigated the relationship between promoter -2518 A/G single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of MCP-1 gene and clinical course of CCHF. MCP-1 -2518 A/G SNP (rs1024611)frequency was examined in 128 virologically/serologically confirmed CCHF patients and 181 healthy controls by using PCR-RFLP method. When CCHF patients and controls were compared, no significant difference was found between genotype distributions and allele frequencies of -2518 A/G SNP of MCP-1 gene (p>0.05). Compared to the AA genotype, both AG (p=0.016; OR= 2.57) and GG genotype (p=0.039; OR=3.43) were found significantly higher frequency in mild/moderate cases than in severe cases. Compared to AG + GG genotype, AA showed a significant risk for severe CCHF (60.0% vs. 38.4%, p=0.02; OR=2.41). In contrast, AG genotype showed a significant protective effect against severe disease compared to AA + GG genotype (29.1% vs. 47.9%, p=0.013; OR=2.58). Compared to mild/moderate cases, the A allele was found to be significantly higher in severe cases (0.745 vs. 0.623, p=0.039; OR=1.77). However, no significant relationship was found between fatal and non-fatal cases in terms of genotype or allele frequencies (p>0.05). In conclusion, both -2518 AA genotype and A allele of MCP-1 were associated with the disease severity, and AG genotype had protective effect against severe disease course in CCHF patients. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.