EVALUATION OF THE ASSOCIATION OF MICA RS1051792 POLYMORPHISM AND CYTOMEGALOVIRUS INFECTION IN KIDNEY TRANSPLANT RECIPIENTS

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is one of the most prevalent infections among
kidney transplant recipients. Due to the use of immunosuppressive medications in kidney transplant
recipients, their immune system is low and complications of CMV infection such as transplant rejection
are observed in them. The MICA gene encodes a stress-related protein that is involved in responding to
the virus in virus-infected cells and cancer. One of the single nucleotide polymorphisms of the MICA
gene is rs1051792. This polymorphism leads to a non-synonymous mutation which classifies the MICA
alleles into strong (MICA-129 Met) and weak (MICA-129 Val) binders of the NKG2D receptor. The
purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between MICA rs1051792 polymorphism and
susceptibility to cytomegalovirus infection in kidney transplant recipients in the northwest of Iran.
Materials & Methods: This study included 51 cytomegalovirus-infected kidney transplant recipients as
cases and 50 kidney transplant recipients without cytomegalovirus infection as control subjects.
Genotyping was performed by PCR-RFLP technique.
Results: The percentage of frequencies of the genotypes AA, AG, GG was 17.64%, 45.09%, and 37.25%
in the cases and 16%, 48%, and 36% in the control group, respectively. The statistical analysis did not
indicate significant differences between the case and control groups (p>0.05).
Conclusion: The results do not support the association between MICA rs1051792 and susceptibility to
cytomegalovirus infection in kidney transplant recipients. Findings emphasize the need to evaluate other
candidates of the genetic polymorphisms in the study population