European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology
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Eur. J. Clin. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. · Sep 2014
Multicenter StudyAssociation of autophagy-related 16-like 1 (ATG16L1) gene polymorphism with sepsis severity in patients with sepsis and ventilator-associated pneumonia.
Autophagy is a highly conserved mechanism of eukaryotic cells implicated in cell homeostasis and elimination of intracellular pathogens. Functional polymorphisms in genes encoding for autophagy have been associated with susceptibility to inflammatory and infectious diseases, but data on severe infections are missing. The aim of the present study was to assess whether polymorphisms in genes encoding proteins involved in autophagy influence susceptibility to ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). ⋯ PCT was increased upon worsening to septic shock and organ failure only among carriers of the minor frequency A alleles. In a homogeneous cohort of septic patients with VAP, the carriage of autophagy polymorphisms predisposes to VAP severity and septic shock development. This may be related with predisposition to immunoparalysis.