Title : Role of HLA-C*04:01 distribution in Thai population: Contributions of the genetics marker with severity of COVID-19
Abstract:
COVID-19 or Coronavirus is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV2 virus, mainly affects the respiratory system which could be spread via contact or airborne. Symptoms include fever, cough, breathlessness, sore throat, and loss of taste or smell. It is fatal to some individuals after contracting the disease while others appear asymptomatic. Within the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) is located on the short arm of chromosome 6 is associated with immune response. The specific HLA allele may present antigen to the T cell. Previous study, the HLA-C*04:01 allele was associated with a significant increase in the severe COVID-19 infection with OR (95% CI) =1.73 (1.20-2.49) and p-value <0.021. Our objective is to investigate the distribution of HLA-C*04:01 allele in Thai population. One-hundred ninety Thai individuals were enrolled in this study. Genomic DNA were extracted from EDTA whole blood by Genomic DNA Mini Kit. HLA-C alleles were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction sequence specific oligonucleotides (PCR-SSOs). We found the frequency of the top ten HLA-C alleles were HLA-C*01:02 (14.47%), HLA-C*08:01(12.11%), HLA-C*03:04 (10.26%), HLA-C*07:02(9.47%), HLA-C*03:02 (6.58%), HLA-C*12:02 (6.05%), HLA-C*04:01(5.79%), HLA-C*07:01 (5.53%), HLA-C*07:04 (4.47%), HLA-C*04:03 HLA-C*06:02 and HLA-C*15:02 (3.95%), HLA-C*14:02 (3.42%). Out of the 22 HLA-C*04:01 alleles present in the 190 in the Thai population, all of them are Heterozygous alleles. Furthermore, the frequencies of HLA-C*04:01 alleles were similar among Thai population and Caucasians, Hispanics, North Americans and Asians (p-value = 0.31, 0.07, 0.10 and 1.00 respectively), but there was significant difference when compared between Thais and African Americans with p-value = 0.04. From this research it could be concluded that the presence of HLA-C*04:01 distribution might be relevant in predicting the severity of the COVID-19 infection in the Thai population. We need further study in larger numbers of Thai patients with severe COVID-19.
