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- Title
A Protective HLA Extended Haplotype Outweighs the Major COVID-19 Risk Factor Inherited From Neanderthals in the Sardinian Population.
- Authors
Mocci, Stefano; Littera, Roberto; Tranquilli, Stefania; Provenzano, Aldesia; Mascia, Alessia; Cannas, Federica; Lai, Sara; Giuressi, Erika; Chessa, Luchino; Angioni, Goffredo; Campagna, Marcello; Firinu, Davide; Del Zompo, Maria; La Nasa, Giorgio; Perra, Andrea; Giglio, Sabrina
- Abstract
Sardinia has one of the lowest incidences of hospitalization and related mortality in Europe and yet a very high frequency of the Neanderthal risk locus variant on chromosome 3 (rs35044562), considered to be a major risk factor for a severe SARS-CoV-2 disease course. We evaluated 358 SARS-CoV-2 patients and 314 healthy Sardinian controls. One hundred and twenty patients were asymptomatic, 90 were pauci-symptomatic, 108 presented a moderate disease course and 40 were severely ill. All patients were analyzed for the Neanderthal-derived genetic variants reported as being protective (rs1156361) or causative (rs35044562) for severe illness. The β°39 C>T Thalassemia variant (rs11549407) , HLA haplotypes, KIR genes, KIRs and their HLA class I ligand combinations were also investigated. Our findings revealed an increased risk for severe disease in Sardinian patients carrying the rs35044562 high risk variant [OR 5.32 (95% CI 2.53 - 12.01), p = 0.000]. Conversely, the protective effect of the HLA-A*02:01, B*18:01, DRB*03:01 three-loci extended haplotype in the Sardinian population was shown to efficiently contrast the high risk of a severe and devastating outcome of the infection predicted for carriers of the Neanderthal locus [OR 15.47 (95% CI 5.8 – 41.0), p < 0.0001]. This result suggests that the balance between risk and protective immunogenetic factors plays an important role in the evolution of COVID-19. A better understanding of these mechanisms may well turn out to be the biggest advantage in the race for the development of more efficient drugs and vaccines.
- Subjects
SARDINIA (Italy); HAPLOTYPES; NEANDERTHALS; COVID-19; GENETIC variation; ASYMPTOMATIC patients
- Publication
Frontiers in Immunology, 2022, Vol 13, p1
- ISSN
1664-3224
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3389/fimmu.2022.891147