Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I Chain-Related (MICA) STR Polymorphisms in COVID-19 Patients Gutiérrez Bautista, Juan Francisco Rodríguez Nicolás, Antonio Rosales Castillo, Antonio Jiménez, Pilar Anderson, Per Olof López Ruz, Miguel Ángel López Nevot, Miguel Ángel Ruiz-Cabello Osuna, Francisco MICA STR polymorphisms MICA SARS-CoV-2 NK cells Innate immunity The SARS-CoV-2 disease presents different phenotypes of severity. Comorbidities, age, and being overweight are well established risk factors for severe disease. However, innate immunity plays a key role in the early control of viral infections and may condition the gravity of COVID-19. Natural Killer (NK) cells are part of innate immunity and are important in the control of virus infection by killing infected cells and participating in the development of adaptive immunity. Therefore, we studied the short tandem repeat (STR) transmembrane polymorphisms of the major histocompatibility complex class I chain-related A (MICA), an NKG2D ligand that induces activation of NK cells, among other cells. We compared the alleles and genotypes of MICA in COVID-19 patients versus healthy controls and analyzed their relation to disease severity. Our results indicate that the MICA*A9 allele is related to infection as well as to symptomatic disease but not to severe disease. The MICA*A9 allele may be a risk factor for SARS-CoV-2 infection and symptomatic disease. 2022-09-05T07:53:00Z 2022-09-05T07:53:00Z 2022-06-23 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Gutiérrez-Bautista, J.F... [et al.]. Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I Chain-Related (MICA) STR Polymorphisms in COVID-19 Patients. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23, 6979. [https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23136979] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/76499 10.3390/ijms23136979 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución 4.0 Internacional MDPI