Single nucleotide polymorphism in Angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 gene as a risk for COVID-19 among Iraqi people

Angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2) is an essential element in the renin-angiotensin RAS  system and plays a key role in coronavirus entrance to the human body and attachment to the cell. Variation in ACE-2 may increase the capability of coronavirus to binding with human tissues and lead to variation in disease severity among patients. For this reason, this study aimed to take some SNPs in different COVID-19 patient cases to show the possible role of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme-2 (ACE2) polymorphism in people that could have severe infections  caused by SARS-CoV-2 by detecting different single nucleotide polymorphisms SNPs on this gene by PCR-sequencing. This cross-sectional study includes 100 diagnosed COVID-19 patients during a period between November and December 2021. The result revealed that three SNPs rs1463669655, rs746202722, and rs201035388 located on ACE-2 (GRCh38.p13) gene did not associate with the severity of COVID-19 disease because all patients have either the wildtype or the heteterotype allele as the following 0 % GG, 100 % AG, and 0% AA as the genotype distribution in severe cases, and the genotype distribution in non-severe cases was 0 % GG, 100 %AG, and 0 % AA and 100 % AA, 0 % AG, and 0% GG as the genotype distribution in severe cases, and the genotype distribution in non-severe cases was 100 % AA, 0 %AG, and 0 % GG and 100 % GG, 0 % GA, and 0% AA as the genotype distribution in severe cases, and the genotype distribution in non-severe cases was 100 % GG, 0 %GA, and 0 % AA for these three SNPs respectively. The ACE-2 angiotensin-converting enzyme gene was studied because of its active participation in the entry of the Coronavirus into the human body and its binding to alveolar cells and concluded that three SNPs rs1463669655, rs746202722, and rs201035388 located on ACE-2(GRCh38.p13) gene did not associate with the severity of COVID-19 disease.