Saudi Stem Cells Donor Registry, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center/ King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
J Epidemiol Glob Health. 2022 Mar;12(1):85-91. doi: 10.1007/s44197-021-00023-3. Epub 2022 Jan 3.
Disease severity among patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 varies remarkably. Preliminary studies reported that the ABO blood group system confers differential viral susceptibility and disease severity caused by SARS-CoV-2. Thus, differences in ABO blood group phenotypes may partly explain the observed heterogeneity in COVID-19 severity patterns, and could help identify individuals at increased risk. Herein, we explored the association between ABO blood group phenotypes and COVID-19 susceptibility and severity in a Saudi Arabian cohort.
In this retrospective cohort study, we performed ABO typing on a total of 373 Saudi patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 and conducted association analysis between ABO blood group phenotype and COVID-19 infection severity. We then performed gender-stratified analysis by dividing the participating patients into two groups by gender, and classified them according to age.
The frequencies of blood group phenotypes A, B, AB and O were 27.3, 23.6, 5.4 and 43.7%, respectively. We found that blood group phenotype O was associated with a lower risk of testing positive for COVID-19 infection (OR 0.76 95% CI 0.62-0.95, p = 0.0113), while blood group phenotype B was associated with higher odds of testing positive (OR 1.51 95% CI 1.17-1.93, p = 0.0009). However, blood group phenotype B was associated with increased risk in the mild and moderate group but not the severe COVID-19 infection group. Blood group phenotype O was protective in all severity groups.
Our findings provide evidence that blood group phenotype B is a risk for COVID-19 disease while blood group phenotype O is protective from COVID-19 infection. However, further studies are necessary to validate these associations in a larger sample size and among individuals of different ethnic groups.
感染 SARS-CoV-2 的患者的疾病严重程度差异显著。初步研究报告称，ABO 血型系统赋予了 SARS-CoV-2 不同的病毒易感性和疾病严重程度。因此，ABO 血型表型的差异可能部分解释了 COVID-19 严重程度模式的异质性，并有助于确定风险增加的个体。在此，我们在沙特阿拉伯队列中探讨了 ABO 血型表型与 COVID-19 易感性和严重程度的关系。
在这项回顾性队列研究中，我们对总共 373 名感染 SARS-CoV-2 的沙特患者进行了 ABO 定型，并对 ABO 血型表型与 COVID-19 感染严重程度之间的关联进行了分析。然后，我们按性别将参与患者分为两组，并按年龄进行分类，进行了性别分层分析。
血型表型 A、B、AB 和 O 的频率分别为 27.3%、23.6%、5.4%和 43.7%。我们发现，血型表型 O 与 COVID-19 感染检测呈阳性的风险较低相关（OR 0.76，95%CI 0.62-0.95，p=0.0113），而血型表型 B 与检测呈阳性的可能性较高相关（OR 1.51，95%CI 1.17-1.93，p=0.0009）。然而，血型表型 B 与轻度和中度 COVID-19 感染组相关，但与严重 COVID-19 感染组无关。在所有严重程度组中，血型表型 O 都具有保护作用。
我们的研究结果提供了证据，表明血型表型 B 是 COVID-19 疾病的危险因素，而血型表型 O 可预防 COVID-19 感染。然而，需要进一步的研究来在更大的样本量和不同种族的个体中验证这些关联。
