RT Journal Article
T1 Worldwide distribution of genetic factors related to severity of COVID-19 infection
A1 Esteban, María Esther
A1 Novillo Villajos, Apolonia
A1 Fernández Santander, Ana
AB 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.
PB Taylor and Francis
SN 0301-4460
YR 2024
FD 2024-07-16
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/132173
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/132173
LA eng
NO Esteban ME, Pino D, Romero-Lorca A, Novillo A, Gaibar M, Riancho JA, Rojas-Martínez A, Flores C, Lapunzina P, Carracedo Á; SCOURGE Cohort Group; Athanasiadis G, Fernández-Santander A. Worldwide distribution of genetic factors related to severity of COVID-19 infection. Ann Hum Biol. 2024 Feb;51(1):2366248. doi: 10.1080/03014460.2024.2366248. Epub 2024 Jul 16. PMID: 39012049.
NO Financiado con Fondos FEDER
NO European Commission
NO Instituto de Salud Carlos III (España)
NO Generalitat de Catalunya
NO Fundación Amancio Ortega Gaona
NO Banco de Santander
DS Docta Complutense
RD 22 mar 2026