The role of the HLA allelic repertoire on the clinical severity of COVID-19 in Canadians, living in the Saskatchewan province

Crown Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved..

AIMS: The HLA system has been implicated as an underlying determinant for modulating the immune response to SARS-CoV-2. In this study, we aimed to determine the association of patients' HLA genetic profiles with the disease severity of COVID-19 infection.

METHODS: Prospective study was conducted on COVID-19 patients (n = 40) admitted to hospitals in Saskatoon, Canada, between March and December 2020. Next-generation sequencing was performed on the patient samples to obtain high-resolution HLA typing profiles. The statistical association between HLA allelic frequency and disease severity was examined. The disease severity was categorized based on the length of hospital stay and intensive care needs or demise during the hospital stay.

RESULTS: HLA allelic frequencies of the high and low-severity cohorts were normalized against corresponding background allelic frequencies. In the high-severity cohort, A*02:06 (11.8-fold), B*51:01 (2.4-fold), B*15:01(3.1-fold), C*01:02 (3.3-fold), DRB1*08:02 (31.2-fold), DQ*06:09 (11-fold), and DPB1*04:02(4-fold) were significantly overrepresented (p < 0.05) making these deleterious alleles. In the low-severity cohort, A*24:02 (2.8-fold), B*35:01 (2.8-fold), DRB1*04:07 (5.3-fold), and DRB1*08:11 (22-fold) were found to be significantly overrepresented (p < 0.05) making these protective alleles. These above alleles interact with NK cell antiviral activity via the killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR). The high-severity cohort had a higher predilection for HLA alleles associated with KIR subgroups; Bw4-80I (1.1-fold), and C1 (1.6-fold) which promotes NK cell inhibition, while the low-severity cohort had a higher predilection for Bw4-80T (1.6-fold), and C2 (1.6-fold) which promote NK cell activation.

CONCLUSION: In this study, the HLA allelic repository with the distribution of deleterious and protective alleles was found to correlate with the severity of the clinical course in COVID-19. Moreover, the interaction of specific HLA alleles with the KIR-associated subfamily modulates the NK cell-mediated surveillance of SARS-CoV-2. Both deleterious HLA alleles and inhibitory KIR appear prominently in the severe COVID-19 group focusing on the importance of NK cells in the convalescence of COVID-19.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2023

Erschienen:

2023

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:84

Enthalten in:

Human immunology - 84(2023), 3 vom: 05. März, Seite 163-171

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Kakodkar, Pramath [VerfasserIn]
Dokouhaki, Pouneh [VerfasserIn]
Wu, Fang [VerfasserIn]
Shavadia, Jay [VerfasserIn]
Nair, Revathi [VerfasserIn]
Webster, Destinie [VerfasserIn]
Sawyer, Terry [VerfasserIn]
Huan, Tao [VerfasserIn]
Mostafa, Ahmed [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

COVID-19
HLA Antigens
HLA typing
Journal Article
KIR
Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors
Natural killer cells
Receptors, KIR

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 03.03.2023

Date Revised 03.03.2023

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1016/j.humimm.2023.01.003

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM352178469