@article{10902/34434,
year = {2024},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10902/34434},
abstract = {Background: Genome-wide association studies of COVID-19 severity have been carried out mostly on European or East Asian populations with small representation of other world regions. Here we explore the worldwide distribution and linkage disequilibrium (LD) patterns of genetic variants previously associated with COVID-19 severity.
Methods: We followed up the results of a large Spanish genome-wide meta-analysis on 26 populations from the 1000 Genomes Project by calculating allele frequencies and LD scores of the nine most significant SNPs. We also used the entire set of summary statistics to compute polygenic risk scores (PRSs) and carried out comparisons at the population and continental level.
Results: We observed the strongest differences among continental regions for the five top SNPs in chromosome 3. European, American, and South Asian populations showed similar LD patterns. Average PRSs in South Asian and American populations were consistently higher than those observed in Europeans. While PRS distributions were similar among South Asians, the American populations showed striking differences among them.
Conclusions: Considering the caveats of PRS transferability across ethnicities, our analysis showed that American populations present the highest genetic risk score, hence potentially higher propensity, for COVID-19 severity. Independent validation is warranted with additional summary statistics and phenotype data.},
organization = {Funding: This work was supported by the Generalitat de Catalunya via a Consolidated Research Group grant (2021-SGR-00706); the Fundación Amancio Ortega Gaona, Banco de Santander S.A. and Instituto de Salud Carlos III (COV20/00622) and the European Regional Development Fund. Genotyping was carried out at CEGEN-PRB3-ISCIII, supported by grant PT17/0019, of the PE I+D+i 2013–2016, funded by ISCIII and ERDF.},
publisher = {Taylor & Francis},
publisher = {Annals of Human Biology, 2024, 51(1)},
title = {Worldwide distribution of genetic factors related to severity of COVID-19 infection},
author = {Esteban, María Esther and Pino, Débora and Romero-Lorca, Alicia and Novillo, Apolonia and Gaibar, Mría and Riancho Moral, José Antonio and Rojas-Martínez, Augusto and Flores, Carlos and Lapunzina, Pablo and Carracedo, Ángel and Athanasiadis, Georgios and Fernández-Santander, Ana},
}