{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,14]],"date-time":"2026-04-14T00:40:23Z","timestamp":1776127223357,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":28,"publisher":"Elsevier BV","issue":"01","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,2,16]],"date-time":"2023-02-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1676505600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":46,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Glob Med Genet"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2023,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:p>A coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has created significant concern since December 2019 worldwide. The virus is known to be highly transmissible. Heterogenic clinical features even vary more among SARS-CoV-2 variants from asymptomatic forms to severe symptoms. Previous studies revealed an association between COVID-19 and vitamin D deficiency resulting from its low levels in COVID-19 patients. To our knowledge, there is no scientific investigation that evaluates the direct association between SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene markers in Cyprus. Thus, the present study aimed to identify the putative impact of VDR gene polymorphisms on SARS-CoV-2 infection among different variants.<\/jats:p><jats:p>The nasopharyngeal swabs were taken from a total number of 600 patients who were admitted to Near East University Hospital COVID-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Diagnosis Laboratory for routine SARS-CoV-2 real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) test. The RT-qPCR negative resulting samples were taken as control samples (n\u2009=\u2009300). On the contrary, the case group consisted of patients who were SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR positive, infected with either SARS-CoV-2 Alpha (n\u2009=\u2009100), Delta (n\u2009=\u2009100), or Omicron (n\u2009=\u2009100) variants. Two VDR gene polymorphisms, TaqI-rs731236 T\u2009&gt;\u2009C and FokI-rs10735810 C\u2009&gt;\u2009T, were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism.<\/jats:p><jats:p>The mean age of the COVID-19 patient's\u2009\u00b1\u2009standard deviation was 46.12\u2009\u00b1\u200912.36 and 45.25\u2009\u00b1\u200912.71 years old for the control group (p\u2009&gt;\u20090.05). The gender distribution of the patient group was 48.3% female and 51.7% male and for the control group 43% female and 57% male (p\u2009&gt;\u20090.05). Significant differences were observed in genotype frequencies of FokI and TaqI variants between SARS-CoV-2 patients compared to the control group (p\u2009&lt;\u20090.005). Furthermore, the risk alleles, FokI T allele and TaqI C, were found to be statistically significant (odds ratio [OR]\u2009=\u20091.80, 95% confidence interval [CI]\u2009=\u20091.42\u20132.29, OR\u2009=\u20091.62, 95% CI\u2009=\u20091.27\u20132.05, respectively) in COVID-19 patients. The highest number of patients with wild-type genotype was found in the control group, which is 52.9% compared with 17.5% in the case group. Moreover, most of the COVID-19 patients had heterozygous\/homozygous genotypes, reaching 82.5%, while 47.1% of the control group patients had heterozygous\/homozygous genotypes.<\/jats:p><jats:p>Our results suggested that patients with FokI and TaqI polymorphisms might tend to be more susceptible to getting infected with SARS-CoV-2. Overall, findings from this study provided evidence regarding vitamin D supplements recommendation in individuals with vitamin D deficiency\/insufficiency in the peri- or post-COVID-19 pandemic.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1055\/s-0043-1761924","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,2,17]],"date-time":"2023-02-17T00:34:36Z","timestamp":1676594076000},"page":"027-033","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Strong Association between Vitamin D Receptor Gene and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 Infectious Variants"],"prefix":"10.1016","volume":"10","author":[{"given":"Begimai","family":"Mamurova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Molecular Medicine, Institute of Graduate Studies, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Gokce","family":"Akan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"DESAM Research Institute, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Evren","family":"Mogol","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Molecular Medicine, Institute of Graduate Studies, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ayla","family":"Turgay","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Molecular Medicine, Institute of Graduate Studies, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus"},{"name":"Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Near East University Hospital, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Gulten","family":"Tuncel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"DESAM Research Institute, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Emine Unal","family":"Evren","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Kyrenia University"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hakan","family":"Evren","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Kyrenia University"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kaya","family":"Suer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tamer","family":"Sanlidag","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"DESAM Research Institute, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mahmut Cerkez","family":"Ergoren","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Molecular Medicine, Institute of Graduate Studies, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus"},{"name":"Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Near East University Hospital, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus"},{"name":"Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"78","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,2,16]]},"reference":[{"issue":"21","key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8155","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph17218155","article-title":"COVID-19 pandemic: epidemiology, etiology, conventional and non-conventional therapies","volume":"17","author":"A Rauf","year":"2020","journal-title":"Int J Environ Res Public Health"},{"issue":"07","key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"993","DOI":"10.3390\/biom11070993","article-title":"COVID-19: unmasking emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants, vaccines and therapeutic strategies","volume":"11","author":"R 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