Nasopharyngeal Shedding of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome -- Associated Coronavirus Is Associated with Genetic Polymorphisms.

Background. A high initial or peak severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) load in nasopharyngeal specimens was shown to be associated with a high mortality rate. Because all infected individuals were devoid of preeexisting protective immunity against SARS-CoV, the biological basis for the variable virus burdens in different patients remains elusive. Methods. The nationwide SARS database in Taiwan was analyzed, and genotyping of 281 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of 65 genes was performed for 94 patients with SARS, to identify SNPs for which distribution between patients with or without detectable nasopharyngeal shedding of SARS-CoV was biased. Results. Titers of SARS-CoV shed in nasopharyngeal specimens varied widely, ranging from nondetectable to 108 SARS-CoV RNA copies/mL, and they were correlated positively with a high mortality rate ( P = .0001 test) and with early death (i.e., death occurring within 2 weeks of the onset of illness) ( P = .0015, by trend test). Virus shedding was found to be higher among male patients ( P = .0014 , by multivariate logistic regression) and among older patients ( P = .015, by multivariate logistic regression). Detectable nasopharyngeal shedding of SARS-CoV was associated with polymorphic alleles of interleukins 18 (P = .014 ) and 1A (P = .031) and a member of NFκB complex (reticuloendotheliosis viral oncogene homolog B [RelB]) (P = .034 ), all of which are proinflammatory in nature, as well as the procoagulation molecule fibrinogen-like protein 2 (P = .008 ). Conclusion. The SARS-CoV load is a determinant of clinical outcomes of SARS, and it is associated with polymorphisms of genes involved in innate immunity, which might be regulated in an age- and sex-dependent manner. The findings of the present study provided leads to genes involved in the host response to SARS-CoV infection; if substantiated with functional studies, these findings may be applicable to other newly emerged respiratory viruses (e.g., the influenza pandemic strain). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]