The ABO blood type has been reported to be associated with several diseases such as hepatitis and malaria. Recently, some studies have reported that people with O blood type are protected against COVID-19, while people with A blood type are more susceptible to contract this disease. Here, we analysed data from 5668 COVID-19 patients along with the same number of control samples in a study population in Iraq. Our analysis confirms that people with O blood type are protected partially against COVID-19. Notably, we demonstrate that people with RhD- are more susceptible to contract COVID-19 than people with RhD+ blood type. The blood types are associated with some clinical symptoms such as headache and asthenia of COVID-19, but there is no association with other symptoms. There is no association between blood types and deaths among COVID-19 patients. This study suggests that in addition to ABO, RhD blood type influences the susceptibility to contract COVID-19. Overall, we conclude that susceptibility/protection against COVID-19 may not be determined based only on blood types among the global population as this might vary based on a number of other factors such as ethnicity, geographical locations, occupation and the level of exposure to infected people.

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Vitiligo is a common disorder characterized by the appearance of white patches resulting from the loss of functional melanocytes and melanin from the skin. Recent studies have associated vitiligo with defective autoimmune system. The Interleukin-13 (IL-13) gene polymorphism maybe one of the important conditions for the development of a certain group of diseases, especially autoimmune diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between C-469T of IL-13 gene polymorphism (Figure 1) and vitiligo in Thi Qar province in southern Iraq. This study consisted of 100 subjects including 60 vitiligo patients (40 males, 20 females, mean age 31.85 ± 15.1 years) and 40 matched controls. No significant differences were observed between the two studied groups as regards sex, age and smoking. Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) PCR was used for the analysis of the studied polymorphism. The distribution of IL-13 C/T and T/T genotypes did not show significant difference between the patients and controls P-value=0.6 (OR=1.4; 95 %CI=0.53-3.75), respectively.

Introduction and Aim: Diabetes mellitus is a complex disease that is a major global health problem. It is defined as a chronic metabolic disease characterized by high blood glucose levels. Diabetes risk has been linked to genetic variations within mitochondrial DNA. The current study sought to identify and compare genetic variation (mutations) in ATPase genes in diabetic patients and healthy individuals.   Materials and Methods: This study included 100 individuals (50 T2DM patients and 50 healthy volunteers).  Peripheral blood samples were collected from each individual and DNA extracted. The mitochondrial mtATPase genes were amplified using specific primers by polymerase chain reaction. The amplified products were sequenced, and the sequences obtained analyzed for nucleotide changes.   Results: The ATPase gene sequence analysis revealed nine nucleotide changes, three of which (A9039G, G9092A, and G9100T) are classified as polymorphisms in the human mitochondrial genome database. Furthermore, we presented the first description of mutations in ATPase genes such as (A8586G, C8637T, G8813A, A8953G, C8981T and T9024G). The A9039G mutation changed the amino acid isoleucine to glycine, the G9100T mutation changed the amino acid serine to isoleucine, and the C8981G mutation changed the amino acid threonine to isoleucine. Most patients were found to predict haplogroup H2a (H2a2), in addition to having H1c (H1c3) and L1c(L1c2). The presence of genetic variations in mtATPase genes may be an inheritable risk factor for type 2 diabetes mellitus pathogenesis.   Conclusion: Variants in ATPase mitochondrial genes may be one of the risk factors associated with type 2 diabetes. Hence, documenting these mutations is clinically important in the possibility of diagnosing diabetes, as well as the likelihood that these mutations could be pathogenic.