Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Dec 22:11:586111.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.586111. eCollection 2020.

Host Genetics at the Intersection of Autoimmunity and COVID-19: A Potential Key for Heterogeneous COVID-19 Severity

Tugce Karaderi  1   2 , Halin Bareke  3   4 , Imge Kunter  5 , Adil Seytanoglu  3 , Ilgin Cagnan  3 , Deniz Balci  3 , Burc Barin  6 , Mevhibe B Hocaoglu  7   8 , Nilufer Rahmioglu  9   10 , Esra Asilmaz  11 , Bahar Taneri  3   12
Affiliations
Review

Host Genetics at the Intersection of Autoimmunity and COVID-19: A Potential Key for Heterogeneous COVID-19 Severity

Tugce Karaderi et al. Front Immunol. .

Abstract

COVID-19 presentation is very heterogeneous across cases, and host factors are at the forefront for the variables affecting the disease manifestation. The immune system has emerged as a key determinant in shaping the outcome of SARS-CoV-2 infection. It is mainly the deleterious unconstrained immune response, rather than the virus itself, which leads to severe cases of COVID-19 and the associated mortality. Genetic susceptibility to dysregulated immune response is highly likely to be among the host factors for adverse disease outcome. Given that such genetic susceptibility has also been observed in autoimmune diseases (ADs), a number of critical questions remain unanswered; whether individuals with ADs have a significantly different risk for COVID-19-related complications compared to the general population, and whether studies on the genetics of ADs can shed some light on the host factors in COVID-19. In this perspective, we discuss the host genetic factors, which have been under investigation in association with COVID-19 severity. We touch upon the intricate link between autoimmunity and COVID-19 pathophysiology. We put forth a number of autoimmune susceptibility genes, which have the potential to be additional host genetic factors for modifying the severity of COVID-19 presentation. In summary, host genetics at the intersection of ADs and COVID-19 may serve as a source for understanding the heterogeneity of COVID-19 severity, and hence, potentially holds a key in achieving effective strategies in risk group identification, as well as effective treatments.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; autoimmunity; cytokine; host genetics; immune response; polymorphism; susceptibility.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

BB was employed by The Emmes Company. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

References

    1. Helmy YA, Fawzy M, Elaswad A, Sobieh A, Kenney SP, Shehata AA, et al. The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comprehensive Review of Taxonomy, Genetics, Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Control. J Clin Med (2020) 9(4). 10.3390/jcm9041225 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization https://covid19.who.int/.
    1. Williamson EJ, Walker AJ, Bhaskaran K, Bacon S, Bates C, Morton CE, et al. OpenSAFELY: factors associated with COVID-19 death in 17 million patients. Nature (2020). 10.1038/s41586-020-2521-4 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chakravarty D, Nair SS, Hammouda N, Ratnani S, Gharib Y, Wagaskar V, et al. Sex differences in SARS-CoV-2 infection rates and the potential link to prostate cancer. Commun Biol (2020) 3(1):374. 10.1038/s42003-020-1088-9 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Borges do Nascimento IJ, Cacic N, Abdulazeem HM, von Groote TC, Jayarajah U, Weerasekara I, et al. Novel Coronavirus Infection (COVID-19) in Humans: A Scoping Review and Meta-Analysis. J Clin Med (2020) 9(4). 10.2139/ssrn.3550028 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types