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Research Article
Why do we die? Uncovering the genetic connections causing COVID-19 disease severity
Kimberly P. Dobrinski
University of Tampa
Corresponding Author
ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2626-1204
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This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
SARS-CoV-2 attacks randomly causing deaths among certain populations. Additionally, this disease seems to kill males preferentially. This study investigates why by examining single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) correlated with increased protein expression associated with viral infection of cells leading to disease proliferation. ACE2, the assumed host cell receptor for the virus is believed to be assisted by co-receptors ENPEP and ANPEP. TMPRSS2 cleaves the S viral protein into two sub-units allowing viral binding to the ACE2 receptor. ACE2 found on the X-chromosome has SNPs increasing ACE2 expression found at frequencies greater than 50% in all male populations analyzed which could account for the increase in male deaths. Females would undergo X-inactivation for the SNPs and have protection from the increased ACE2 expression in all their cells. ACE2, ENPEP, and TMPRSS2 were also found to have population specific SNP patterns which could account for the increased prevalence of disease among certain populations.
Keywords
COVID-19, Single Nucleotide polymorphisms, eQTL, risk, disease severity
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This is a preprint. It has not completed peer review.
Research Article
Why do we die? Uncovering the genetic connections causing COVID-19 disease severity
Kimberly P. Dobrinski
University of Tampa
Corresponding Author
ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2626-1204
Badges
Prescreen
This manuscript passed our Prescreen assessment
Complete author information
Appropriate declaration statements
Potential risks to human health
Prescreen
History
CURRENT STATUS: Posted
Version 1
Posted 04 Jun, 2020
No community comments so far
Metrics
Comments: 0
PDF Downloads: ...
HTML Views: ...
Subject Areas
Medical Genetics
License:
This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
SARS-CoV-2 attacks randomly causing deaths among certain populations. Additionally, this disease seems to kill males preferentially. This study investigates why by examining single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) correlated with increased protein expression associated with viral infection of cells leading to disease proliferation. ACE2, the assumed host cell receptor for the virus is believed to be assisted by co-receptors ENPEP and ANPEP. TMPRSS2 cleaves the S viral protein into two sub-units allowing viral binding to the ACE2 receptor. ACE2 found on the X-chromosome has SNPs increasing ACE2 expression found at frequencies greater than 50% in all male populations analyzed which could account for the increase in male deaths. Females would undergo X-inactivation for the SNPs and have protection from the increased ACE2 expression in all their cells. ACE2, ENPEP, and TMPRSS2 were also found to have population specific SNP patterns which could account for the increased prevalence of disease among certain populations.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5