Influence of APOE locus on poor prognosis of COVID-19
Juliana Carla Gomes Rodrigues,
Pablo Pinto,
Luciana Pereira Colares Leitão,
Lui Wallacy Morikawa Souza Vinagre,
Natasha Monte,
Marianne Rodrigues Fernandes,
André Salim Khayat,
Paulo Pimentel de Assumpção,
Ney Pereira Carneiro dos Santos,
Sidney Emanuel Batista dos Santos
Affiliations
Juliana Carla Gomes Rodrigues
Núcleo de Pesquisas em Oncologia, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Pará, Brazil; Corresponding author.
Pablo Pinto
Núcleo de Pesquisas em Oncologia, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Pará, Brazil; Laboratório de Genética Humana e Médica, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Pará, Brazil
Luciana Pereira Colares Leitão
Núcleo de Pesquisas em Oncologia, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Pará, Brazil
Lui Wallacy Morikawa Souza Vinagre
Núcleo de Pesquisas em Oncologia, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Pará, Brazil
Natasha Monte
Núcleo de Pesquisas em Oncologia, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Pará, Brazil
Marianne Rodrigues Fernandes
Núcleo de Pesquisas em Oncologia, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Pará, Brazil
André Salim Khayat
Núcleo de Pesquisas em Oncologia, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Pará, Brazil
Paulo Pimentel de Assumpção
Núcleo de Pesquisas em Oncologia, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Pará, Brazil
Ney Pereira Carneiro dos Santos
Núcleo de Pesquisas em Oncologia, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Pará, Brazil
Sidney Emanuel Batista dos Santos
Núcleo de Pesquisas em Oncologia, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Pará, Brazil; Laboratório de Genética Humana e Médica, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Pará, Brazil; Corresponding author.
The COVID-19 pandemic has infected over 25 million of people worldwide, 5% of whom evolved to death and, among of the active cases, more than 60 thousand are classified as critical or severe. Recent studies revealed that ApoE, a protein encoded by APOE gene, may increase the risk of severe COVID-19 cases. ApoE has been involved with prevention of tissue damage and promotion of adaptative immune response in the lungs. This study investigated frequencies distribution of alleles that alter the ApoE expression in lung tissues to trace a profile of these variants and associate them to COVID-19 clinical outcomes. Data about APOE expression levels was obtained from the Genotype-Tissue Expression Project and the allele frequencies of APOE variants was acquired from the populations included in the phase 3 release of the 1000 Genomes Project. A total of 128 variants showed a significant impact on the APOE expression in lung tissues (p < 0.0001). Linkage Disequilibrium analysis revealed that 98 variants were closely grouped into seven distinct haplotype blocks, of which six were composed of variants that significantly decrease APOE gene expression in the lungs. Most of the haplotypes with higher impact on APOE expression showed greater frequencies in Europeans and lower in Africans, which implies that European populations might be more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection. The present study indicates a potential genetic contribution of APOE expression-modifying variants in modulating the prognosis of COVID-19.
