Giri Prashant S, Bhimani Radhika, Laddha Naresh C, Dwivedi Mitesh
C. G. Bhakta Institute of Biotechnology, Uka Tarsadia University, Surat, Gujarat, India.
In vitro Speciality Lab Pvt. Ltd, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
Nucleosides Nucleotides Nucleic Acids. 2025;44(1):1-15. doi: 10.1080/15257770.2024.2303710. Epub 2024 Jan 19.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), while generalized vitiligo(GV) is an autoimmune disease that causes the loss of functional melanocytes, resulting in white patches all over the body. Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) plays a crucial role in immune response to pathogens. Studies assessing the link between GV and COVID-19 are lacking; therefore, our current study was aimed to establish the association between GV and by genotyping the allele in 150 GV patients and 150 controls from South Gujarat population through polymerase chain reaction-sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP) method. Additionally, we assessed the correlation of GV with COVID-19 and the influence of on COVID-19 development. Interestingly, our study suggested that the allele was prevalent in GV patients as compared to controls (52% 35.33%; = 0.0051). Moreover, the occurrence of COVID-19 was significantly lower in GV patients than in controls (10% 32.66%; < 0.0001). Disease activity-based analysis suggested that COVID-19 occurrence was significantly lower in active vitiligo (AV) patients as compared to stable vitiligo (SV) patients(6.87% 31.57%; = 0.0045). Furthermore, COVID-19 development was significantly reduced in positive individuals as compared to negative individuals ( = 0.0025). Overall, our study suggests, for the first time, that allele might be a genetic risk factor for GV susceptibility, and an ongoing immune response in GV patients, more specifically in AV patients, might protect against COVID-19 infection in South Gujarat population. Additionally, our study highlighted the likely role of in protection against COVID-19 development.
2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）由严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）引起，而泛发性白癜风（GV）是一种自身免疫性疾病，会导致功能性黑素细胞丧失，从而在全身形成白斑。人类白细胞抗原（HLA）在对病原体的免疫反应中起关键作用。目前缺乏评估GV与COVID-19之间联系的研究；因此，我们当前的研究旨在通过聚合酶链反应-序列特异性引物（PCR-SSP）方法对150例来自古吉拉特邦南部人群的GV患者和150例对照进行HLA等位基因基因分型，以确定GV与HLA之间的关联。此外，我们评估了GV与COVID-19的相关性以及HLA对COVID-19发展的影响。有趣的是，我们的研究表明，与对照组相比，HLA等位基因在GV患者中更为普遍（52%对35.33%；P = 0.0051）。此外，GV患者中COVID-19的发生率显著低于对照组（10%对32.66%；P < 0.0001）。基于疾病活动的分析表明，与稳定期白癜风（SV）患者相比，活动期白癜风（AV）患者中COVID-19的发生率显著更低（6.87%对31.57%；P = 0.0045）。此外，与HLA阴性个体相比，HLA阳性个体中COVID-19的发展显著减少（P = 0.0025）。总体而言，我们的研究首次表明，HLA等位基因可能是GV易感性的遗传风险因素，并且GV患者，尤其是AV患者中持续的免疫反应可能会预防古吉拉特邦南部人群感染COVID-19。此外，我们的研究突出了HLA在预防COVID-19发展中的可能作用。
