PMID- 32717807
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20200812
LR  - 20201218
IS  - 1422-0067 (Electronic)
IS  - 1422-0067 (Linking)
VI  - 21
IP  - 15
DP  - 2020 Jul 23
TI  - HLA-B*44 and C*01 Prevalence Correlates with Covid19 Spreading across Italy.
LID - 10.3390/ijms21155205 [doi]
LID - 5205
AB  - The spread of COVID-19 is showing huge, unexplained, differences between northern 
      and southern Italy. We hypothesized that the regional prevalence of specific 
      class I human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles, which shape the anti-viral immune 
      response, might partly underlie these differences. Through an ecological 
      approach, we analyzed whether a set of HLA alleles (A, B, C), known to be 
      involved in the immune response against infections, correlates with COVID-19 
      incidence. COVID-19 data were provided by the National Civil Protection 
      Department, whereas HLA allele prevalence was retrieved through the Italian 
      Bone-Marrow Donors Registry. Among all the alleles, HLA-A*25, B*08, B*44, 
      B*15:01, B*51, C*01, and C*03 showed a positive log-linear correlation with 
      COVID-19 incidence rate fixed on 9 April 2020 in proximity of the national 
      outbreak peak (Pearson's coefficients between 0.50 and 0.70, p-value < 0.0001), 
      whereas HLA-B*14, B*18, and B*49 showed an inverse log-linear correlation 
      (Pearson's coefficients between -0.47 and -0.59, p-value < 0.0001). When alleles 
      were examined simultaneously using a multiple regression model to control for 
      confounding factors, HLA-B*44 and C*01 were still positively and independently 
      associated with COVID-19: a growth rate of 16% (95%CI: 0.1-35%) per 1% point 
      increase in B*44 prevalence; and of 19% (95%CI: 1-41%) per 1% point increase in 
      C*01 prevalence. Our epidemiologic analysis, despite the limits of the ecological 
      approach, is strongly suggestive of a permissive role of HLA-C*01 and B*44 
      towards SARS-CoV-2 infection, which warrants further investigation in 
      case-control studies. This study opens a new potential avenue for the 
      identification of sub-populations at risk, which could provide Health Services 
      with a tool to define more targeted clinical management strategies and priorities 
      in vaccination campaigns.
FAU - Correale, Pierpaolo
AU  - Correale P
AD  - Unit of Medical Oncology, Oncology Department, Grand Metropolitan Hospital 
      'Bianchi Melacrino Morelli', I-89124 Reggio Calabria, Italy.
FAU - Mutti, Luciano
AU  - Mutti L
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-1578-2637
AD  - Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, Center for 
      Biotechnology, College of Science and Technology, Temple University, 
      Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA.
FAU - Pentimalli, Francesca
AU  - Pentimalli F
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0003-4740-6801
AD  - Cell Biology and Biotherapy Unit, Istituto Nazionale Tumori, IRCCS, Fondazione G. 
      Pascale, I-80131 Napoli, Italy.
FAU - Baglio, Giovanni
AU  - Baglio G
AD  - Ministry of Health, I-00153 Rome, Italy.
FAU - Saladino, Rita Emilena
AU  - Saladino RE
AD  - Tissue Typing Unit, Grand Metropolitan Hospital 'Bianchi Melacrino Morelli', 
      I-89124 Reggio Calabria, Italy.
FAU - Sileri, Pierpaolo
AU  - Sileri P
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-1104-6237
AD  - Universita Vita Salute San Raffaele, I-20132 Milano, Italy.
FAU - Giordano, Antonio
AU  - Giordano A
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-5959-016X
AD  - Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, Center for 
      Biotechnology, College of Science and Technology, Temple University, 
      Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA.
AD  - Department of Medical Biotechnologies, University of Siena, I-53100 Siena, Italy.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Observational Study
DEP - 20200723
PL  - Switzerland
TA  - Int J Mol Sci
JT  - International journal of molecular sciences
JID - 101092791
RN  - 0 (HLA-B44 Antigen)
RN  - 0 (HLA-C Antigens)
SB  - IM
MH  - COVID-19
MH  - Coronavirus Infections/*epidemiology/*genetics/immunology
MH  - Gene Frequency
MH  - HLA-B44 Antigen/*genetics
MH  - HLA-C Antigens/*genetics
MH  - Humans
MH  - Italy/epidemiology
MH  - Pandemics
MH  - Pneumonia, Viral/*epidemiology/*genetics/immunology
MH  - Prevalence
MH  - Registries
MH  - Regression Analysis
PMC - PMC7432860
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - COVID-19
OT  - HLA class I
OT  - SARS-Cov2
OT  - coronavirus
OT  - viral infection susceptibility
COIS- The authors declare no conflict of interest.
EDAT- 2020/07/29 06:00
MHDA- 2020/08/13 06:00
PMCR- 2020/08/01
CRDT- 2020/07/29 06:00
PHST- 2020/06/04 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2020/07/06 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2020/07/10 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2020/07/29 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2020/07/29 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2020/08/13 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2020/08/01 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - ijms21155205 [pii]
AID - ijms-21-05205 [pii]
AID - 10.3390/ijms21155205 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Int J Mol Sci. 2020 Jul 23;21(15):5205. doi: 10.3390/ijms21155205.