Rs9984273 contributes to the expression of IFNAR together with rs2236757
ARDS
DISEASE, ARDS
After the discovery of rs9984273, and recognizing its role in the outcome of the previous clinical ARDS studies, we then investigated, whether this polymorphism contributes to the expression of the IFNAR (composed of IFNAR1 and IFNAR2 subunits) by immunohistochemistry using antibodies against IFNAR subunits of the receptor in surgical lung specimens from 14 patients. In this material, five samples had the major allele TT, 8 samples CT, and 1 CC for rs9984273. The primary antibody was titrated to the level, at which the alveolar epithelium and vasculature still remained strongly positive in a subset of the samples. The scoring was done without any knowledge of the genotype. The results clearly show that all high expressors of IFNAR were CT and overall the CT/CC group had statistically significantly higher IFNAR level than the TT group. However, four out of nine samples from the CC/CT group show medium level of expression, indicating that other factors are involved in regulating IFNAR expression. Therefore, we decided to analyze another SNP, rs2236757 in IFNAR2 that has been found to contribute to disease severity of COVID-19 [Rs9984273 is associated with the expression of IFNAR and regulation of We also analyzed the number of CD73 positive vessels and expression level of CD73 in lung specimens incubated for 4 days with IFN β. There were no differences in the number of CD73 positive vessels/mm