Investigation of IL-۱۷RA editing sites in patients with severe COVID-۱۹

Interleukin ۱۷ (IL-۱۷) family is highly multi-purpose pro-inflammatory cytokines critical for a variety ofprocesses, including host defense and pathogenesis of inflammatory disease. Interleukin ۱۷ receptors (IL-۱۷R) consists of ۵ members and despite these functions, regulating immune and inflammatory responses, areanother role of IL-۱۷R. The aim of this study was to investigate IL-۱۷RA editing sites in patients with severeCOVID-۱۹. RNA-seq raw data related to ۴۰ COVID-۱۹ hospitalized patients and ۱۰ healthy donors wereretrieved from the publicly available Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Quality control, alignmentand variant calling were performed using FastQC, Hisat۲ and Freebayes tools, respectively. RNA-DNAdifferences were filtered to remove known SNPs and low quality SNVs. Additionally, several quality-awarefiltering steps were employed to increase the accuracy of identifying true RNA editing sites. Finaly, statisticalsignificance for differences between patients and healthy donors editing ratios was assessed by the T test.Our results showed difference in ۷ A to G editing sites on the ۳’UTR of IL-۱۷RA gene between patients andhealthy donors (P<۰.۰۵). These editing sites could affect microRNA target recognition and subsequentlyaffect the expression profile of IL-۱۷RA. RNA editing of IL-۱۷RA significantly differ between hospitalizedCOVID-۱۹ patients and heathy peoples and anti-IL-۱۷RA therapy in COVID-۱۹ should be considered.

کلیدواژه ها:

RNA-sequencing ، COVID-۱۹ ، RNA editing ، IL-۱۷RA