The Impact of LEP rs7799039 Polymorphism and Obesity on the Severity of Coronavirus Disease-19

Amal Ahmed Mohamed; Abdulmohsen H Alrohaimi; Asmaa Sayed Abdelgeliel; Sarah Albogami; Ibrahim Jafri; Eman Fayad; Nouran Mohamed; Nourelhuda Ahmed Nassar; Ahmad Sobhy Adaroas; Hala H Eldeeb; Ahmed Abdel Halim; Ahmed Ramadan; Rehab M Elnagar; Reem Ahmed Mohamed Abdelghafour; Amira Yones Mohamed; Maha O Mahmoud; Ahmed El-Kasses; Marwa El-Sayed; Mostafa Ahmed Mohammed; Eman A Alwaleed; Shrook Mousa; Sherief Abdel Salam; Soha M Abd El Salam

doi:10.2147/DMSO.S391869

The Impact of LEP rs7799039 Polymorphism and Obesity on the Severity of Coronavirus Disease-19

Diabetes Metab Syndr Obes. 2023 Feb 21:16:515-522. doi: 10.2147/DMSO.S391869. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Amal Ahmed Mohamed¹, Abdulmohsen H Alrohaimi², Asmaa Sayed Abdelgeliel³, Sarah Albogami⁴, Ibrahim Jafri⁴, Eman Fayad⁴, Nouran Mohamed⁵, Nourelhuda Ahmed Nassar⁶, Ahmad Sobhy Adaroas⁶, Hala H Eldeeb⁶, Ahmed Abdel Halim⁷, Ahmed Ramadan⁸, Rehab M Elnagar⁹, Reem Ahmed Mohamed Abdelghafour¹⁰, Amira Yones Mohamed¹¹, Maha O Mahmoud¹², Ahmed El-Kasses¹³, Marwa El-Sayed¹⁴, Mostafa Ahmed Mohammed¹⁵, Eman A Alwaleed³, Shrook Mousa¹⁶, Sherief Abdel Salam¹⁷, Soha M Abd El Salam¹⁸

Affiliations

¹ Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department, National Hepatology & Tropical Medicine Research Institute, Cairo, Egypt.
² Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy, Shaqra University, Shaqra, Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Botany and Microbiology, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt.
⁴ Department of Biotechnology, College of Science, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Faculty of Biotechnology, Misr University for Science and Technology, Giza, Egypt.
⁶ Clinical Pathology Department, Elsahel Teaching Hospital, Cairo, Egypt.
⁷ Tropical Medicine Department, National Hepatology & Tropical Medicine Research Institute, Cairo, Egypt.
⁸ Endemic Medicine Department, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
⁹ Radiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt.
¹⁰ Internal Medicine Department, Damnohour Teaching Hospital, Cairo, Egypt.
¹¹ Internal Medicine Department, Mataria Teaching Hospital, Cairo, Egypt.
¹² Biochemistry Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Egyptian Russian University, Cairo, Egypt.
¹³ Radiology Department, Elsahel Teaching Hospital, Cairo, Egypt.
¹⁴ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt.
¹⁵ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al Azhar University, Assiut Branch, Assiut, Egypt.
¹⁶ Internal Medicine Department, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
¹⁷ Department of Hepatogastroenterology and Infectious Diseases, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt.
¹⁸ Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Suez University, Suez, Egypt.

Abstract

Background and aims: SARS-CoV-2 infection has been recorded in 230 countries to date. Obesity has a negative impact on one's quality of life and is one of the main causes of mortality globally. Obesity affects the immune system, making the host more susceptible to infectious infections. Also, obesity commonly provokes the severity of respiratory diseases so the correlation of LEP rs7799039 Polymorphism in corpulent patients with COVID-19 infection was clearly investigated in the current study.

Methods: A total of 232 patients were recruited, 116 patients were obese with COVID-19 infection, and 116 patients were non obese COVID-19. Fasting blood glucose test (FBG), hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C), complete blood count (CBC), international normalized ratio (INR), urea, alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), D dimer and C-reactive protein (CRP) were estimated. C.T. scan was performed for each patient, and C.T. severity score was calculated. Genotyping for the leptin rs7799039 SNPs was performed by TaqMan^® (Applied Biosystems Step One ^TM Real-time PCR).

Results: Regarding LEP polymorphism, all individuals of non-obese groups significantly had the homozygous allele GG (100%), whereas only 56% of obese groups had GG alleles (P = 0.001). The severity scores significantly (P = 0.001) varied regarding LEP polymorphism regarding Rs7799039, where the largest proportion of those with Grade IV had the homozygous allele AA (57.1%).

Conclusion: There was a correlation between the leptin gene allelic discrimination and COVID-19 CT brutality in obese patients. The A allele was considered a risk factor for severity in COVID-19 patients while the G allele contributes to decreasing that risk.

Keywords: COVID-19; gene polymorphism; immunity; leptin; obesity.