ace1-i/d polymorphism in patients with severe covid-19

Background: in several studies, insertion/deletion (i/d) polymorphism in the angiotensin-converting enzyme 1 (ace1) gene is described as a genetic risk factor for coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) infection. however, in some studies, this contribution is not confirmed. therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the genotypic and allelic frequency of ace1-d/i in kurdish patients with severe covid-19 in iran. methods: a total of 95 patients with pcr positive-covid-19 were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. genomic dna was extracted from peripheral blood leucocytes using the salting out method. all cases were genotyped for ace1-i/d polymorphism using polymerase chain reaction (pcr). death percentage from covid-19 after two months? follow-up was analyzed.?results: of?the 95 patients, 48 were female (50.5%) and 47 were male (49.5%) with a mean age of 61.9?18.7 years. the id genotype was the most prevalent (52.6%) followed by dd (32.6%) and ii (14.7%). the d and i allele frequencies were 58.9%, and 41.1%, respectively. the d allele frequency was higher in patients with spo2?90% (p = 0.048). the mortality percentage was 18.9% (8 females and 10 males). the frequency of the dd, id, and ii genotypes in patients who died from covid-19 was 27.7%, 61,1%, and 11.1%. conclusions: our results indicated that the ace1- d allele can be a genetic risk factor in covid-19 patients. further studies on different ethnicities and geographical regions are needed to evaluate this polymorphism in covid-19 infection.