The role of host genetic variation in pneumonia development and outcome is poorly understood. We studied common polymorphisms in the genes of proinflammatory cytokines (IL6 rs1800795, IL8 rs4073, IL1B rs16944), anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL10 rs1800896, IL4 rs2243250, IL13 rs20541) and toll-like receptors (TLR2 rs5743708 and rs4696480, TLR4 rs4986791, TLR9 rs352139, rs5743836 and rs187084) in patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) (390 cases, 203 controls) and nosocomial pneumonia (355 cases, 216 controls). Experimental data were included in a series of 11 meta-analyses and eight subset analyses related to pneumonia susceptibility and outcome. TLR2 rs5743708 minor genotype appeared to be associated with CAP/Legionnaires’ disease/pneumococcal disease. In CAP patients, the IL6 rs1800795-C allele was associated with severe sepsis/septic shock/severe systemic inflammatory response, while the IL10 rs1800896-A allele protected against the development of these critical conditions. To contribute to deciphering of the above results, we performed an in silico analysis and a qualitative synthesis of literature data addressing basal and stimulated genotype-specific expression level. This data together with database information on transcription factors’ affinity changes caused by SNPs in putative promoter regions, the results of linkage disequilibrium analysis along with SNPs functional annotations supported assumptions about the complexity underlying the revealed associations.

Brain tumors are the common site for solid tumors in childhood. Very few studies have investigated genes with low penetrance in relation to pediatric brain tumor (pBT) development. Brain tumors do occur more frequently in males compared to females regardless of age, tumor histology, or region of the world. Taken into account these facts, we have designed a study aimed to analyse the contribution of some genetic factors to pBP in males and females. Patients with glial and embryonic brain tumors (160 males, 124 females) and healthy controls (277 males, 187 females) were included in the study. All subjects were genotyped for eight polymorphic variants in the genes of xenobiotics detoxification CYP1A1 (rs2606345, rs4646903, rs1048943), GSTM1 (Ins/del), GSTT1 (Ins/del), repair ERCC2 (rs1799793, rs13181), and folate pathway MTHFR (rs1801133). Genotype-specific risks of pBT were sex-dependent. GSTM1 deletion and dual deletions in GSTM1-GSTT1 loci were associated with brain tumor in males (P = 1.2 × 10(-5); odds ratio (OR) = 2.56; 95 % confidence interval (CI), 1.45-3.85 and P = 4.9 × 10(-4); OR = 3.09; 95 % CI, 1.63-5.89, relatively). The increased risk of brain tumors was evident for CYP1A1 rs2606345 (P = 0.0028; OR = 2.06; 95 % CI, 1.27-3.34) and minor haplotypes rs2606345-rs1048943-rs4646903 in females (global haplotype association P value, 0.0011). This study provides first evidence for the different pronounced pBT associations in males and females. This phenomenon possibly reflects the sexual dimorphism as an important determinant of brain tumor biology.

Rare variants affecting host defense against pathogens may be involved in COVID-19 severity, but most rare variants are not expected to have a major impact on the course of COVID-19. We hypothesized that the accumulation of weak effects of many rare functional variants throughout the exome may contribute to the overall risk in patients with severe disease. This assumption is consistent with the omnigenic model of the relationship between genetic and phenotypic variation in complex traits, according to which association signals tend to spread across most of the genome through gene regulatory networks from genes outside the major pathways to disease-related genes. We performed whole-exome sequencing and compared the burden of rare variants in 57 patients with severe and 29 patients with mild/moderate COVID-19. At the whole-exome level, we observed an excess of rare, predominantly high-impact (HI) variants in the group with severe COVID-19. Restriction to genes intolerant to HI or damaging missense variants increased enrichment for these classes of variants. Among various sets of genes, an increased signal of rare HI variants was demonstrated predominantly for primary immunodeficiency genes and the entire set of genes associated with immune diseases, as well as for genes associated with respiratory diseases. We advocate taking the ideas of the omnigenic model into account in COVID-19 studies.

SummaryHost genetic variations may influence a changing profile of biochemical markers and outcome in patients with trauma/injury. The objective of this study was to assess clinical associations of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the genes of cytokines in critically ill patients. A total of 430 patients were genotyped for SNPs in the genes of pro-(IL1B, IL6, IL8) and anti-inflammatory (IL4, IL10, IL13) cytokines. The main end-points were sepsis, mortality and adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We evaluated the dynamic levels of bilirubin, blood urea nitrogen, creatine kinase, creatinine and lactate dehydrogenase in five points of measurements (between 1 and 14 days after admission) and correlated them with SNPs. High-producing alleles of proinflammatory cytokines protected patients against sepsis (IL1B 2511A and IL8 -251A) and mortality (IL1B 2511A). High-producing alleles of anti-inflammatory cytokines IL4 -589T and IL13 431A (144Gln) were less frequent in ARDS patients. The carriers of IL6 -174C/C genotypes were prone to the increased levels of biochemical markers and acute kidney and liver insufficiency. Genotype-dependent differences in the levels of biochemical indicators gradually increased to a maximal value on the 14th day after admission. These findings suggest that genetic variability in pro-and antiinflammatory cytokines may contribute to different clinical phenotypes in patients at high risk of critical illness.

We performed synthesis of new nitrofuranyl amides and investigated their anti-TB activity and primary genetic response of mycobacteria through whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of spontaneous resistant mutants. The in vitro activity was assessed on reference strain Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv. The most active compound 11 was used for in vitro selection of spontaneous resistant mutants. The same mutations in six genes were detected in bacterial cultures grown under increased concentrations of 11 (2×, 4×, 8× MIC). The mutant positions were presented as mixed wild type and mutant alleles while increasing the concentration of the compound led to the semi-proportional and significant increase in mutant alleles. The identified genes belong to different categories and pathways. Some of them were previously reported as mediating drug resistance or drug tolerance, and counteracting oxidative and nitrosative stress, in particular: Rv0224c, fbiC, iniA, and Rv1592c. Gene-set interaction analysis revealed a certain weak interaction for gene pairs Rv1592–Rv1639c and Rv1592–Rv0224c. To conclude, this study experimentally demonstrated a multifaceted primary genetic response of M. tuberculosis to the action of nitrofurans. All three 11-treated subcultures independently presented the same six SNPs, which suggests their non-random occurrence and likely causative relationship between compound action and possible resistance mechanism.