StemCell Therapy

Genome-wide association study identifies ABO blood protein

The identification of a gene cluster associated with progression to severe disease in patients with Covid-19 strengthens findings from earlier studies suggesting a prominent role for ABO blood group locus in disease severity.

In the genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving patients hospitalized with Covid-19 in Italy and Spain during the local peak of the pandemic, patients with blood group A had an increased risk for progression to severe disease, while patients with blood group O had a lesser risk for progression.

The strongest signal for severe disease, however, was the rs11385942 insertion-deletion GA or G variant at locus 3p21.31, according to researchers from the Severe Covid-19 GWAS Group.

Blood-group specific analysis showed a higher risk for severe disease among patients with blood group A and a lower risk with blood group O.

The groups findings, published Oct. 14 in the New England Journal of Medicine, were originally reported online in June.

In a newly published commentary, researcher Arthur Kaser, MD, of the University of Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease wrote that the genome-wide association study represents a major leap toward disentangling the molecular mechanisms that cause severe Covid-19.

Kaser was not involved with the study.

This genome association study will set directions for research, he wrote, adding that a focus on the immunologic synapse between T cells and antigen-presenting cells appears to be warranted in the search for therapies to address the hyperinflammatory state known as cytokine storm that occurs in some patients with severe Covid-19.

Researchers from the Severe Covid-19 GWAS Group pragmatically compared data from patients hospitalized with severe Covid-19 (defined as respiratory failure), with data from contemporarily recruited blood donors with mostly unknown SARS-CoV-2 status and from historically healthy controls from the same region.

Associations were identified between the risk of developing severe Covid-19 and a multigene locus at 3p21.31 and the ABO blood group locus at 9q34.2.

No association signal was shown for the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region, which is a regulator of infection immunity and has been suggested as a potential driver of Covid-19 severity.

At locus 3p21.31, the association signal spanned 6 genes: SLC6A20, LZTFL1, CCR9, FYCO1, CXCR6 and XCR1.

The association signal at locus 9q34.2 coincided with the ABO blood group locus; in this cohort, a blood-groupspecific analysis showed a higher risk in blood group A than in other blood groups (odds ratio, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.20-1.75; P=1.48104) and a protective effect in blood group O as compared with other blood groups (odds ratio, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.53-0.79; P=1.06105), wrote Tom H. Karlsen of the University of Oslo, and colleagues from the Severe Covid-19 GWAS Group.

In his editorial, Kaser noted that among the 6 candidate genes at 3p21.31, LZTFL1 might be the most compelling, with the rs11385942 variant and all other fine-mapped association signals that exceeded genome-wide significance located within it.

LZTFL1 is widely expressed and encodes a protein involved in protein trafficking to primary cilia, which are microtubule-based subcellular organelles acting as antennas for extracellular signals, he wrote. In T lymphocytes, LZTFL1 participates in the immunologic synapse with antigen-presenting cells, such as dendritic cells (these cells prime T-lymphocyte responses).

Kaser noted that of the other 5 candidate genes, 4 (CCR9, FYCO1, CXCR6 and XCR1) have roles in T-cell and dendritic-cell function, while SLC6A20 is a transporter with intestinal expression regulated by the SARS-CoV-2 receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2).

Earlier research has shown the Covid-19 hyperinflammatory response to resemble secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), which is a rare and often fatal hyperinflammatory response triggered by autoimmune disorders, certain cancers, and infections.

Kaser wrote that while secondary HLH remains poorly understood, Mendelian-inherited primary HLH points toward CD8+ T lymphocytes, natural killer cells and dendritic cells triggering a cytokine storm involving macrophages.

Other shared features between secondary HLH and severe Covid-19 are cytopenia, hyperferritinemia, disseminated intravascular coagulation, acute respiratory distress syndrome, multiple organ dysfunction, excessive expansion of T lymphocytes, and bone marrow histiocytic hyperplasia with hemophagocytosis with aggregates of interstitial CD8+ lymphocytes, he noted.

The Severe Covid-19 GWAS Group concluded that further exploration of the (study) findings both as to their usefulness in clinical risk profiling of patients with Covid-19 and toward a mechanistic understanding of the underlying pathophysiology, is warranted.

In his commentary, Kaser concluded that the clinical success of treating Covid-19 patients on mechanical ventilation with the corticosteroid dexamethasone provides strong evidence that death may be caused by a late hyperinflammatory phase.

A therapeutic agent that converts severe Covid-19 into a manageable, nonfatal infection would render this pandemic a lesser concern, he wrote.

Because it is impossible to predict mechanisms straight from genomic coordinates, experimental testing of the biology of implicated genetic risk pathways is a route, albeit a potentially challenging one, toward that goal.

Salynn Boyles, Contributing Writer, BreakingMED

Karlsen reported grants from Stein Erik Hagen (via Canica A/S) during the conduct of the study; personal fees from Gilead Sciences, personal fees from Novartis, personal fees from Engitix, and personal fees from Intercept outside the submitted work.

Kaser had no disclosures.

Cat ID: 497

Topic ID: 495,497,282,497,125,190,926,192,927,151,59,928,925,934

See the article here:
Genetic Variants Linked to Severe Covid-19 - Physician's Weekly

This entry was posted on October 15, 2020 at 8:57 pm and is filed under Genetics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |