COVID-19 symptoms and comorbidities associated with the type of Vitamin D Receptor

Created October 2021

Association of Vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms and clinical/severe outcomes of COVID-19 patients

Infect Genet Evol. 2021 Oct 2 : 105098.doi: 10.1016/j.meegid.2021.105098

Rasoul Abdollahzadeh,a,⁎,1 Mohammad Hossein Shushizadeh,b,1 Mina Barazandehrokh,c Sepideh Choopani,d Asaad Azarnezhad,e,⁎ Sahereh Paknahad,a Maryam Pirhoushiaran,a S. Zahra Makani,f and Razieh Zarifian Yeganeha

VitaminDWiki wonders which is correct in this case 1) Health Problem ==> reduces VDR activation to protect itself (as had been documented for Breast Cancer, etc) 2) Reduced VDR ==> Lower Vitamin D in cell ==> Health Problem Apparently they are unaware of the many safe, low-cost ways to improve VDR activation Several of the ways have been proven to fight COVID-19 in Randomized Controlled Trials * 26 health factors increase the risk of COVID-19 – all are proxies for low vitamin D * Many of these risk factors are also associated with a poor Vitamin D Receptor 1. Items in both categories VDR and Virus: {category} --- 1. Vitamin D Receptor category has the following {include}

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Introduction: Growing evidence documented the critical impacts of vitamin D (VD) in the prognosis of COVID-19 patients. The functions of VD are dependent on the vitamin D receptor (VDR) in the VD/VDR signaling pathway. Therefore, we aimed to assess the association of VDR gene polymorphisms with COVID-19 outcomes.

Methods: In the present study, eight VDR single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) in 500 COVID-19 patients in Iran, including

  • 160 asymptomatic,

  • 50 mild/moderate, and

  • 90 severe/critical cases.

The association of these polymorphisms with severity, clinical outcomes, and comorbidities were evaluated through the calculation of the Odds ratio (OR).

Results: Interestingly, significant associations were disclosed for some of the SNP-related alleles and/or genotypes in one or more genetic models with different clinical data in COVID-19 patients.

Significant association of VDR-SNPs with signs, symptoms, and comorbidities was as follows:

  • ApaI with shortness of breath (P ˂ 0.001)

    • and asthma (P = 0.034) in severe/critical patients (group III);

  • BsmI with chronic renal disease (P = 0.010) in mild/moderate patients (group II);

  • Tru9I with vomiting (P = 0.031),

    • shortness of breath (P = 0.04), and

    • hypertension (P = 0.030);

  • FokI with fever and hypertension (P = 0.027) in severe/critical patients (group III);

  • CDX2 with shortness of breath (P = 0.022),

    • hypertension (P = 0.036), and

    • diabetes (P = 0.042) in severe/critical patients (group III);

  • EcoRV with diabetes (P ˂ 0.001 and P = 0.045 in mild/moderate patients (group II)

    • and severe/critical patients (group III), respectively).

However, the association of VDR TaqI and BglI polymorphisms with clinical symptoms and comorbidities in COVID-19 patients was not significant.

Conclusion: VDR gene polymorphisms might play critical roles in the vulnerability to infection and severity of COVID-19, probably by altering the risk of comorbidities. However, these results require further validation in larger studies with different ethnicities and geographical regions.

Clipped from PDF: Conclusion

Vitamin D has been shown to regulate macrophage responses, stopping them from producing excessive amounts of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, which are common in COVID-19. Therefore, the prevalence and mortality rate of COVID-19 may depend on the modulatory effect of bioavailable Vitamin D levels of individuals, which is determined by the genetic background, such as VDR gene polymorphisms. Therefore, we designed the present study to explore the association of eight VDR gene SNPs with the clinical status and prognosis of COVID-19 patients.

We found significant associations of VDR gene variants with several clinical outcomes such as severity and shortness of breath in mild/moderate and severe/critical cases of COVID-19.

Nevertheless, the VDR gene SNPs could not be proposed as either independent or dependent risk factors to COVID-19-co-existing conditions, including hypertension, diabetes, asthma, cardiovascular disease, chronic renal disease, and malignancy.

Our data showed that some VDR SNPs have a clinical impact on the COVID-19 patients and might be helpful to identify the individuals at high risk of COVID-19 severity in the Iranian population. Moreover, the variations in the prevalence of COVID-19 and its mortality rates among countries may be explained by vitamin D function differed by the VDR polymorphisms. However, the present study is preliminary with partially limited sample size. Thus, further experiments are suggested to identify the role of VDR polymorphisms as the cause-effect of COVID-19 severity in a larger population, in other ethnicities and geographical regions.

Tags: Virus Vit D Receptor