A Chinese host genetic study discovered IFNs and causality of laboratory traits on COVID-19 severity

iScience

Ningyu Xia¹  Siyang Liu²  Yan Jin²  Jingyu Zeng³  Xun Xu⁴  Zilong Li⁵  Xiaoying Zhu⁵  Xin Jin⁵  Fanjun Cheng⁵  Linxuan Li⁵  Longqi Liu⁵  Dan Han⁵  Zhen Li⁵  Yilin Chen⁵  Huanhuan Zhu⁵  Yuxue Luo⁶  Wen Liu⁷  Panhong Liu⁷  Huanming Yang⁷  Jian Wang⁷  Ying Shan⁷  Ling Tang⁷  Xia Shen⁷  Rong Xie⁷  Fang Zheng⁸ 

[1] College of Innovation and Experiment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China;College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China;School of Medicine, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510006, China;School of Public Health (Shenzhen), Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong 510006, China;BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518083, China;Department of Emergency Medicine, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430022, China;Department of Hematology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430022, China;Department of Pediatrics, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430022, China;

关键词: Virology;    Biological sciences;    Genetics;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Summary: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused over 220 million infections and 4.5 million deaths worldwide. Current risk factor cannot fully explain the diversity in disease severity. Here, we present a comprehensive analysis of a broad range of patients' laboratory and clinical assessments to investigate the genetic contributions to COVID-19 severity. By performing GWAS analysis, we discovered several concrete associations for laboratory traits and used Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to further investigate the causality of traits on disease severity. Two causal traits, WBC counts and cholesterol levels, were identified based on MR study, and their functional genes are located at genes MHC complex and ApoE, respectively. Our gene-based analysis and GSEA revealed four interferon pathways, including type I interferon receptor binding and SARS coronavirus and innate immunity. We hope that our work will contribute to studying the genetic mechanisms of disease and serve as a useful reference for COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment.

【 授权许可】

Unknown