Investigation of the Prevalence of Polymorphisms of IFITM3 rs12252 and rs34481144 in the Turkish Population: A Pilot Study and Survey Conducted during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Interferon-induced transmembrane protein 3 (IFITM3) plays a substantial role in the immune system by repressing viral entry into host cells and restricting virus replication. Recent research suggests that specific polymorphisms of the IFITM3 gene, rs34481144 and rs12252, contribute to susceptibility to viral infections across populations dependent on their population frequencies, which needs further clarification. This population-based study determined the prevalence of two regulator SNPs in the Turkish population and evaluated genotype and allele frequencies in individuals stratified into groups based on a pilot survey conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tetra-Primer Arms PCR assays and Sanger sequencing methods were used to genotype rs34481144 and rs12252; all participants (n = 200) answered a questionnaire on individual experiences (e.g., disease severity, vaccine side effects) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Distributions of genotype frequencies and pairwise linkage disequilibrium correlations were calculated and compared to publicly available data from worldwide populations. The minor allele frequencies for rs12252-G and rs34481144-T were 0.128 and 0.324, respectively, in the total sample. Our preliminary survey data gave no concrete evidence of a correlation between the analyzed SNPs and COVID-19 severity or vaccine side effects yet pinpointed a trend for an association between rs12252-G and symptom burdens, which merits further investigation. Overall, our results present genotype and allele distributions of two IFITM3 polymorphisms in the Turkish population and provide preliminary data on previously suggested correlations of genotype with COVID-19 in our population.