Genetic Polymorphisms and Cytokine Profile of Different Ethnicities inSeptic Shock Patients and their Association with Mortality

OBJECTIVE: The outcomes of sepsis and septic shock patients are heterogonous, with avariable response despite standardized care. The aim of this study was toexplore the racial differences in septic shock outcomes, and theirassociation with genetic polymorphisms and cytokine levels in an Asianpopulation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was an observational cohort study with Intensive Care units of a 500bedded tertiary care hospital in Singapore. 198 patients (73 Chinese, 73Malay and 52 Indian and others) admitted to the Khoo Teck Puat HospitalIntensive Care Unit between August 2016 and June 2017, with a diagnosis ofsevere sepsis (according to) were enrolled. Plasma interlukin-6 (IL-6),interlukin-10 (IL-10) and tumour necrosis factor-a (TNFa) were measuredusing a highly sensitive quantitative sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbentassay (ELISA) (BioVendor, Modrice, Czech Republic). The gene panel studiedincluded 16 genes. RESULTS: The rs7038903 common variant in SVEP1 gene showed significant associationwith sepsis severity independent of other variants in ordinal logistic andlinear regression model (p = 0.001 and p = 0.002 respectively). Moreover, the association between rs7038903 and increased hazard for death remained significant after further adjusting for cytokines level. Interestingly, significant differences were seen in plasma IL6 inindividuals with or without rs7038903 C allele (28pg/ml (IQR 12-86) vs90pg/ml (IQR 49-155); P=0.022) in patients with severe sepsis in the Malayethnic group. CONCLUSION: Our study shows a promising polymorphism in SVEP1 gene (rs7038903) which isassociated with sepsis shock and 28 days mortality, independent of age, gender, and method of diagnosis and SOFA score. Collectively, while our findings so far have shown the additional value or measuring cytokines andgenetic markers in sepsis outcomes in the local population, further largescare studies are needed in a heterogeneous septic population with arigorous analysis to know the significance of our findings. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Siddiqui S, Gurung RL et al. Genetic Polymorphisms and Cytokine Profile of Different Ethnicities in Septic Shock Patients, and their Association with Mortality. Indian J Crit Care Med 2019;29(3):135-138.