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

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.