Frequency of Interleukin-6 rs1800795 (-174G/C) and rs1800797 (-597G/A) Polymorphisms in COVID-19 Patients in Turkey Who Develop Macrophage Activation Syndrome.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 has infected over 100 million people since it appeared in Wuhan, China, just one year ago. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between interleukin-6 (IL-6) gene polymorphisms -174G/C and -597G/A and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) course. The study included 70 patients aged 18-45 years who were diagnosed with COVID-19 in Turkey between March and November 2020 and hospitalized in our hospital. Of these, 40 patients required intensive care admission due to macrophage activation syndrome (MAS), and 30 patients did not develop MAS or acute respiratory distress syndrome. The frequencies of the IL-6-174G/C and -597G/A polymorphisms were determined. There were significant differences between the groups in terms of the -174G/C allele and genotype frequency according to the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (χ