Association of Alleles of Human Leukocyte Antigen Class II Genes and Severity of COVID-19 in Patients of the ‘Red Zone’ of the Endocrinology Research Center, Moscow, Russia

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the correlations of clinical features of patients with moderate and severe courses of COVID-19, comorbidity (endocrine, autoimmune, cardiovascular, oncological, and pulmonary diseases), and alleles of the HLA class II system genes. One hundred COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the Endocrinology Research Centre, Moscow, Russia, were analyzed for age, gender, smoking, comorbidity, and invasive mechanical ventilation. Computer tomography was used to assess the severity of the disease. HLA-DRB1, HLA-DQA1, and HLA-DQB1 alleles were identified in samples from 100 patients and samples from 327 randomly selected individuals collected in the prepandemic period (control group). There was no association of gender, age, weight, body mass index, smoking, and comorbidity with the severity of COVID-19. Allele DQB1*06:02-8 was more common in patients (p < 0.00005), and DQB1*06:01 and DQB1*05:03 were more common in the control group (p < 0.00005, and p = 0.0011, respectively). DQB1*06:02-8 can probably be considered as predisposing to moderate and severe COVID-19, and DQB1*06:01 can be considered as protective. No association of these alleles with comorbidity was found. Our results suggest that carriers of predisposing alleles, with cardiovascular and non-autoimmune endocrine diseases, should take more stringent preventive measures, and if infected, a more aggressive COVID-19 treatment strategy should be used.

HLA-DQ2/8 and COVID-19 in Celiac Disease: Boon or Bane

“…Applying the computational BA prediction tool, 37 of those epitopes exposed a considerable BA to either HLA-DQ2 or HLA-DQ8 alleles (20 associated with NSP12, 13 with NSP13, 3 with the spike glycoprotein, and 1 with NSP3). Higher sequence similarity and a more effective affinity to specific HLAs were associated with a higher antibody response, thus conferring more efficient protection against a virus [8,23,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]104,108]. A similar explanation can explain the fact that CD patients are relatively protected against COVID-19.…”

“…The protective role of HLAs against bacteria [112], parasites [113], and even viruses is well reported. Their role in fighting viruses like HIV [114], HCV [115], HBV [116], and SARS [8,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][117][118][119] have been documented. Interestingly, the protective role of the CD-associated HLA II suggested by Greco N et al [23] represents a refreshing new idea that can help in our understanding of the celiac-COVID-19-HLA axis.…”

“…The topics of protective HLA polymorphisms related to autoimmune diseases in general [24,25] and, more specifically, to SARS-CoV-2 infectivity have been extensively reported [8,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36], despite some controversary on the latter topic [37]. Interestingly, some HLA variants were described to confer resistance to CD development.…”

Hypocortisolemic ASIA: a vaccine- and chronic infection-induced syndrome behind the origin of long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis

“…For example, Novelli et al. observed that DRB1*15:01, -DQB1*06:02, and -B*27:07 alleles predispose patients to a worse course of COVID-19 disease ( 110 , 111 ). Thus, this excessive response associated with this allele may be more closely related to an increased risk of autoimmunity ( 112 ).…”

COVID-19: Where We Are and Where We Are Going

“…However, these figures almost certainly constitute an underestimation of the true number of cases and deaths. The pandemic has put health systems under pressure in both developing and high-income countries [ 2 , 3 ]. With this in mind, national health systems are expected to be able to answer to the following questions: how do we manage the current epidemic?…”