Association of superoxide dismutase and catalase genetic variants and their gene-gene interactions with the severity of COVID-19

BACKGROUND: Since the outbreak of COVID-19 infection, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), oxidative stress has been proposed as an important player in its severity. This increased the interest in studying antioxidant systems to evaluate their possible role in counteracting disease progression. AIM: The aim of the current study was to investigate the association of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) genes with the severity of COVID-19. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Study subjects were divided into two groups based on the severity of their symptoms. Allele-specific PCR was used for genotyping, and multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) analysis was performed to investigate the SNP–SNP interaction models. RESULTS: The results showed a significant association of SOD2 rs4880 with the severity of COVID-19 (p = 0.002). SOD2 47TT genotype was significantly more frequent among patients with severe COVID-19 (OR 4.34; 95% CI 1.72–10.96). The three-locus SNP–SNP interaction model, resulted from MDR analysis, was statistically significant (0.55 × 10–4, OR 3.81; 95% CI 1.96–7.42). Carriers of SOD1 7958G * SOD2 47T * CAT 262C allele combination had a higher risk of severe COVID-19 (p = 0.0045, OR 2.84, 95% CI 1.40–5.78). CONCLUSIONS: The obtained results contribute to better understanding of COVID-19 pathogenesis and suggest novel potential prognostic biomarkers of the infection.