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. 2024 Feb;28(4):e18105.
doi: 10.1111/jcmm.18105.

Genetic justification of COVID-19 patient outcomes using DERGA, a novel data ensemble refinement greedy algorithm

Affiliations

Genetic justification of COVID-19 patient outcomes using DERGA, a novel data ensemble refinement greedy algorithm

Panagiotis G Asteris et al. J Cell Mol Med. 2024 Feb.

Abstract

Complement inhibition has shown promise in various disorders, including COVID-19. A prediction tool including complement genetic variants is vital. This study aims to identify crucial complement-related variants and determine an optimal pattern for accurate disease outcome prediction. Genetic data from 204 COVID-19 patients hospitalized between April 2020 and April 2021 at three referral centres were analysed using an artificial intelligence-based algorithm to predict disease outcome (ICU vs. non-ICU admission). A recently introduced alpha-index identified the 30 most predictive genetic variants. DERGA algorithm, which employs multiple classification algorithms, determined the optimal pattern of these key variants, resulting in 97% accuracy for predicting disease outcome. Individual variations ranged from 40 to 161 variants per patient, with 977 total variants detected. This study demonstrates the utility of alpha-index in ranking a substantial number of genetic variants. This approach enables the implementation of well-established classification algorithms that effectively determine the relevance of genetic variants in predicting outcomes with high accuracy.

Keywords: COVID-19; DERGA; SARS-CoV2; artificial intelligence; classification algorithms; genetic; variants.

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Conflict of interest statement

Gloria Gerber received honoraria from Apellis Pharmaceutical. Gloria Gerber employment (spouse) and stock holder (spouse) at Pfizer. Eleni Gavriilaki is supported by the ASH Global Research Award and has consulted for Omeros Cooperation. The rest of authors do not have any conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Study population categorized by age, gender and disease severity (requiring or not hospitalization in intensive care unit [ICU]).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Ranking of the top 30 genetic variants based on the proposed new alpha‐index. Red colour signifies that the occurrence of the variant is dominating in patients admitted to ICU, while blue signifies the occurrence of the variant for those not admitted in ICU.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Accuracy plots for the DERGA procedure for each used classification algorithm.

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