SUMMARY. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), was detected in December 2019. At the beginning of the pandemic, it was believed that children were less susceptible to COVID-19 than adults, but further research has shown that children are also vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infection. In recent years, there have been a lot of studies about the role of genetic factors in the course of COVID-19. This fact is suggestive of possible factors of a hereditary predisposition of individuals to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Recently, some obtained evidence has demonstrated that certain genetic polymorphisms, notably the genotypes, differing by the rs12979860 polymorphic variant of the IFNL gene, may predict the severity of respiratory viral infections among children, including COVID-19. The aim of our study was to investigate the specificities of genotype distribution by the rs12979860 polymorphism of the IFNL gene in a cohort of children with COVID-19, and to evaluate the association of this polymorphism with the risk of SARS-CoV-2 virus infection, the development of pneumonia during coronavirus disease, and the course of the disease among children with recurrent respiratory infections (RRI). To this end, the study group of 70 children with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 was genotyped for the polymorphism of the rs12979860 locus of the IFNL gene. The study found that the C allele was more common in children with RRI compared to those with episodic viral infections (p < 0.05, OR 3.2; CI 1.52–6.71), so this variant can be considered a risk allele for more frequent viral infections. Also, the C allele was predominant in the subgroup of children with pneumonia (p < 0.05, OR 2.36 CI 1.19–4.68), indicating that the C allele can be considered a risk allele for more severe COVID-19 due to pneumonia. The results suggest that the C allele may be a predictive marker of the risk of pneumonia in children with COVID-19. In addition, the carriage of the C allele is associated with cases of RRI among children.
Keywords: SARS-COV-2, COVID-19, genetic markers, pneumonia, genetic polymorphism IFNL
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