Association of mannose-binding lectin 2 (MBL2) and suppressor of cytokine signaling-1 (SOCS1) gene variants in children with febrile neutropenia

Introduction: Febrile neutropenia (FEN) was reported in patients with solid malignancies at a rate of 5-10% and in patients with hematological malignancies at a rate of 20-25%. In our study, we aimed to investigate the effects of mannose-binding lectin 2 (MBL2) (rs1800450) and suppressor of cytokine signaling-1 (SOCS1) (rs33989964) gene variants on patients with FEN.Methods: A total of 123 patients who applied to pediatric emergency department between December 2019-12/ 2020 included in the study. Thirteen patients were excluded from the study due to the inability to obtain DNA. Demographic-clinical features at initial diagnosis and genotype distributions were recorded. The control group consisted of volunteers with the same ethnicity, age and gender, no active infection, and no consanguinity.Results: CA/CA genotype of SOCS1 was found to be significantly higher in the healthy control group (p = 0.028). AB/BB genotype of MBL2 was significantly higher in FEN patients with a MASCC score of high risk, AA genotype was found to be higher in patients with low risk (p = 0.001). While the rate of microbiologically documented infection (MDI) was significantly lower in patients with the AA genotype of MBL2, it was significantly higher in patients with AA/BB genotypes (p = 0.025). MDI rate in patients with the del/del genotype of SOCS1 was found to be significantly lower than in patients with CA/CA + CA/del genotypes (p = 0.026).Conclusions: In this study, it was revealed that low expression-related MBL2 genotypes were riskier for FEN and also, gene variants associated with high SOCS1 transcription were both protective against FEN and increased the rate of culture-negativity.