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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which has caused a major global health crisis, primarily targets the upper and lower respiratory tract. But infected individuals may experience different clinical symptoms, ranging from asymptomatic to critical. The vitamin D receptor (VDR) and Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) polymorphisms play a role in the immune response. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of VDR Bsml (rs1544410) and TLR2 23bp indel variants on the clinical status of Turkish patients with COVID-19 disease. A total of 312 people, including 106 intensive care unit (ICU) patients, 103 symptomatic hospitalized patients, and 103 healthy controls, were included in the study. The VDR BsmI and TLR2 23bp indel were genotyped using polymerase chain reaction and/or restriction fragment length fraction methods. The VDR BsmI b/b genotype and b allele were higher in symptomatic patients compared to the healthy control group ( p   =  0.035). The VDR BsmI B/B and B/b genotype distribution did not differ between ICU patients and both symptomatic patients and controls ( p   >  0.05). We found that B/B:B/b+b/b and B/B+B/b:b/b were significantly different in symptomatic patients compared to controls ( p  = 0.033 and p  = 0.041, respectively). The VDR BsmI b/b genotype distribution was found to be lower in deceased patients than in living patients ( p  = 0.023). There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of TLR2 23bp indel genotype and allele distribution ( p  > 0.05). Our study results suggest that the VDR BsmI b allele may have a role in COVID-19 patients with symptomatic findings. These data need to be repeated in different ethnic and larger sample groups., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Homo sapiens evolved in East Africa and had dark skin, hair, and eyes, in order to protect against deleterious consequences of intensive UV radiation at equatorial latitudes. Intensive skin pigmentation was thought to bear the risk of inefficient vitamin D3 synthesis in the skin. This initiated the hypothesis that within the past 75 000 years, in which humans migrated to higher latitudes in Asia and Europe, the need for vitamin D3 synthesis served as an evolutionary driver for skin lightening. In this review, we summarize the recent archeogenomic reconstruction of population admixture in Europe and demonstrate that skin lightening happened as late as 5000 years ago through immigration of lighter pigmented populations from western Anatolia and the Russian steppe but not primarily via evolutionary pressure for vitamin D3 synthesis. We show that variations in genes encoding for proteins being responsible for the transport, metabolism and signalling of vitamin D provide alternative mechanisms of adaptation to a life in northern latitudes without suffering from consequences of vitamin D deficiency. This includes hypotheses explaining differences in the vitamin D status and response index of European populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: We aimed to investigate the association of vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene TaqI single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) with serum lead (Pb) levels in maternal and umbilical cord blood.Materials and Methods: Eighty-one patients who lived in Konya, Turkey for the last 3 years and had delivery at Başkent University Konya Hospital in 2016 were included in this study. Venous blood samples were drawn from each volunteer immediately before giving birth to determine the maternal Pb levels and VDR SNPs. Additionally, umbilical cord blood samples were collected from the umbilical vein into tube with EDTA as an anticoagulant immediately after birth to determine Pb levels of the fetus.Results: The median level of Pb in the maternal blood was 29.00 (Interquartile Range (IQR) = 16.35) μg/L and the median Pb level in the cord blood was 22.50 (IQR = 9.75) μg/L. Blood Pb level of women living in the urban area was significantly higher than in those living in the rural area (Z = 2.118; p = .034). There was a very strong positive correlation between the Pb levels in the maternal blood and in the umbilical cord blood (ρ = 0.825, p < .001, respectively). Regarding VDR SNPs, "TT", "TC", and "CC" VDR TaqI genotypes were observed in 28 (34.6%), 45 (55.5%), and eight samples (9.9%), respectively. Pb levels in maternal and cord blood were higher in women with the "CC" VDR TaqI genotype; however, there was no statistically significant difference (p > .05).Conclusions: Although women with the "CC" VDR TaqI genotype had higher maternal and cord blood Pb levels, this was statistically insignificant and therefore, VDR TaqI SNPs did not significantly affect maternal and umbilical cord blood Pb levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Behçet's disease (BD) is an inflammatory disorder characterized by oral aphthous lesions, uveitis, and genital ulcerations. The vitamin D receptor (VDR) has a crucial role in the pathogenesis of this disease because it mediates the functions of vitamin D in the immune system. Alterations of VDR expression related to polymorphic alleles of the VDR gene may play a pathogenic role in BD and BD's clinical presentations. Methods: 150 BD patients and 150 healthy controls were included and genotyping was carried out by polymerase chain reaction/restriction fragment length polymorphism. Results: Significant differences between patients and controls in rs1544410, rs2228570, and rs731236 genotypes were observed (respectively, p = 0.04, p = 0.007, p = 0.012). The clinical characteristics of BD patients were evaluated and patients with ocular lesions had a higher percentage of rs1544410 A alleles (p = 0.004), and patients with oral aphthous lesions, a positive pathergy tests, and arthritis had more rs2228570 C alleles than patients without these clinical findings (respectively, p < 0.001, p = 0.021, p = 0.045). Conclusion: VDR gene polymorphisms may possibly have a role in the pathogenesis of BD through their effects on VDR expression and may be associated with the increased risk of several clinical findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This study was aimed to determine the relationship between vitamin D and soluble vitamin D receptor (VDR) levels and brucellosis, a common infection in Turkey, in which the cellular immune system is important in the course of the disease. Methodology: Patients who had been followed up in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology of Cukurova University Medical Faculty, having been diagnosed with brucellosis and who had no brucellosis treatment before, were enrolled in the study along with healthy controls. The participants' vitamin D and soluble VDR values were recorded. Laboratory parameters of patients and controls, clinical findings, and disease course of brucellosis patients were also noted. Results: The mean age of the 86 brucellosis patients, of whom 38 (44.2%) were males and 48 (55.8%) were females, was 40.9 ± 18.4 years. Complicated course of brucellosis rate was found to be 29.1%. Vitamin D and VDR levels were lower in brucellosis patients at the time of diagnosis compared to control group. For males, vitamin D and VDR levels were higher in the control group than in the patient group. In males, VDR levels were higher than in females. A significant difference was not found between clinical forms of the disease and vitamin D and VDR levels. Conclusions: Vitamin D and VDR levels were shown to be significantly lower in brucellosis patients before treatment compared to the control group. These results suggest that vitamin D could be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic variations might play a role in susceptibility to temporomandibular joint internal derangement (TMJ-ID) and osteoarthritis of the joint (TMJOA). Vitamin D receptor (VDR) polymorphisms have been shown to be associated with disc degeneration-linked pathologies, particularly osteoarthritis (OA). The aim of this study was to evaluate whether VDR polymorphisms present susceptibility to TMJ-ID/TMJOA. The study included 49 unrelated TMJ-ID patients with OA (31.7 ± 7.9) that were grouped and evaluated as having anterior disk displacement with reduction (ADDwR, n = 24) (31.58 ± 8.25) and without reduction (ADDwoR, n = 25) (31.8 ± 7.53) and 70 healthy controls (28.22 ± 5.9). DNA was extracted from blood samples using the standard proteinase K/phenol-chloroform method. Apa1 and Taq1 polymorphisms were investigated using a polymerase chain reaction-based restriction fragment length polymorphism assay. When TMJ-ID patients, ADDwR cases and ADDwoR cases versus healthy controls were compared, Apa1 Aa genotype compared to AA genotype had odds ratios of 1.65, 1.79 and 1.64 respectively (p > 0.05). In TMJ-ID women versus healthy women Aa genotype had 2.06 fold (p = 0.15) odds compared to AA genotype. Taq1 results showed that in TMJ-ID patients and ADDwoR cases the Tt genotype had odds ratios of 0.63 and 0.44 fold (p > 0.05) respectively. In TMJ-ID women the Tt and tt genotypes had odds ratios of 0.53 and 0.73 (p > 0.05). Combined VDR genotypes revealed that AATT had a 3.3 fold (p = 1.21) odds ratio while AATt had a 2.0 fold odds ratio (p = 0.29) (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.23-1.49, p = 0.26) compared to AaTt. Although our results do not confirm susceptibility of VDR polymorphisms to TMJ-ID/TMJOA ,this relation needs to be further evaluated in a large cohort study.

Background: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic, inflammatory bowel diseases characterized by uncontrolled inflammatory condition of the colon and rectal mucosa marked by recurrent periods of remission and exacerbation. Vitamin D receptor (VDR) is a member of the steroid receptor family that mediates the effects of vitamin D by regulating transcription of multiple cellular genes. We aimed to evaluate vitamin d receptor level in biopsy specimen of patients with UC in this study., Methods: VDR levels were retrospectively studied in colon biopsy specimens of UC patients. The Spearman's rho correlation analysis, The Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Mann Whitney U, and chi-square tests were used for statistical analysis. The p values below 0.05 were considered statistically significant., Results: Study included 112 UC patients (65 male and 47 female) and 30 controls (19 female and 11 male) who had normal results in biopsy examinations carried out due to various reasons. VDR levels of UC patients were statistically lower than control subjects, and was not associated with duration of the disease and place of involvement., Conclusions: VDR is an important receptor in the pathogenesis of UC, and optimizing vitamin D levels could have a therapeutic role in UC., (Copyright © 2017 National Medical Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)