Journal Article

Correlation of the two most frequent HLA haplotypes in the Italian population to the differential regional incidence of Covid-19

Citro, Marianna, Pisanti, Simona, Abate, Mario, Martinelli, Rosanna, Gallina, Anna Maria, Sacchi, Nicoletta, Deelen, Joris, Vecchione, Carmine, Caputo, Mariella

2020

Overview

Background Understanding how HLA polymorphisms may affect both susceptibility, course and severity of Covid-19 infection could help both at the clinical level to identify individuals at higher risk from the disease and at the epidemiological one to explain the differences in the epidemic trend among countries or even within a specific country. Covid-19 disease in Italy showed a peculiar geographical distribution from the northern most affected regions to the southern ones only slightly touched. Methods In this study we analysed the regional frequencies for the most common Italian haplotypes from the Italian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (HLA-A, -B, -C and -DRB1 at four-digit level). Then we performed Pearson correlation analyses among regional haplotypes estimated frequency in the population and Covid-19 incidence and mortality. Results In this study we found that the two most frequent HLA haplotypes in the Italian population, HLA-A*:01:01g-B*08:01 g-C*07:01g-DRB1*03:01g and HLA-A*02.01g-B*18.01g-C*07.01g-DRB1*11.04g, had a regional distribution overlapping that of Covid-19 and showed respectively a positive (suggestive of susceptibility) and negative (suggestive of protection) significant correlation with both Covid-19 incidence and mortality. Conclusions Based on these results, in order to define such HLA haplotypes as a factor effectively associated to the disease susceptibility, the creation of national networks that can collect patients’ samples from all regions for HLA typing should be highly encouraged.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Analysis / Betacoronavirus / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biomedicine / Bone marrow / Bone marrow transplantation / Coronavirus Infections - epidemiology / Coronavirus Infections - genetics / Coronavirus Infections - immunology / Coronaviruses / COVID-19 / Covid-19 incidence and mortality / Development and progression / Disease susceptibility / Drb1 protein / Epidemics / Epidemiology / Fatalities / Gene Frequency / Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Genetics, Population / Geographical distribution / Geography / Haplotypes / Health aspects / Histocompatibility antigen HLA / HLA antigens / HLA Antigens - genetics / HLA polymorphisms / HLA typing / HLA-A Antigens - genetics / HLA-B Antigens - genetics / HLA-C Antigens - genetics / HLA-DRB1 Chains - genetics / Humans / Immunovirology / Incidence / Infection / Italy - epidemiology / Medicine/Public Health / Middle East respiratory syndrome / Mortality / Pandemics / Pneumonia, Viral - epidemiology / Pneumonia, Viral - genetics / Pneumonia, Viral - immunology / SARS-CoV-2 / Susceptibility / Tissue typing / Translational Research, Biomedical