The Association of Human Leukocyte Antigen and COVID-19 in Southern China

Xueping Yu; Kuoting Ho; Zhongliang Shen; Xiaoying Fu; Hongbo Huang; Delun Wu; Yancheng Lin; Yijian Lin; Wenhuang Chen; Milong Su; Chao Qiu; Xibin Zhuang; Zhijun Su

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofab410

The Association of Human Leukocyte Antigen and COVID-19 in Southern China

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2021 Aug 6;8(9):ofab410. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofab410. eCollection 2021 Sep.

Authors

Xueping Yu¹, Kuoting Ho^{2

3}, Zhongliang Shen⁴, Xiaoying Fu², Hongbo Huang⁵, Delun Wu², Yancheng Lin², Yijian Lin⁵, Wenhuang Chen¹, Milong Su⁶, Chao Qiu⁴, Xibin Zhuang⁵, Zhijun Su¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Infectious Disease, The First Hospital of Quanzhou, affiliated to Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou, Fujian, China.
² HI. Q Biomedical Laboratory, Quanzhou, Fujian, China.
³ School of Biomedical Science, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou, Fujian, China.
⁴ Department of Infectious Disease, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
⁵ Department of Respiratory Disease, The First Hospital of Quanzhou, affiliated to Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou, Fujian, China.
⁶ Department of Clinical Laboratory, The First Hospital of Quanzhou, affiliated to Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou, Fujian, China.

Abstract

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) polymorphism is hypothesized to be associated with diverse immune responses toward infectious diseases. Herein, by comparing against multiple subpopulation groups as control, we confirmed that HLA-B*15:27 and HLA-DRB1*04:06 were associated with coronavirus disease 2019 susceptibility in China. Both alleles were predicted to have weak binding affinities toward viral proteins.

Keywords: COVID-19; HLA; SARS-CoV-2; population stratification; susceptibility.