may confer protection to COVID-19 in generalized vitiligo patients from South Gujarat population.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), while generalized vitiligo(GV) is an autoimmune disease that causes the loss of functional melanocytes, resulting in white patches all over the body. Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) plays a crucial role in immune response to pathogens. Studies assessing the link between GV and COVID-19 are lacking; therefore, our current study was aimed to establish the association between GV and by genotyping the allele in 150 GV patients and 150 controls from South Gujarat population through polymerase chain reaction-sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP) method. Additionally, we assessed the correlation of GV with COVID-19 and the influence of on COVID-19 development. Interestingly, our study suggested that the allele was prevalent in GV patients as compared to controls (52% 35.33%;  = 0.0051). Moreover, the occurrence of COVID-19 was significantly lower in GV patients than in controls (10% 32.66%;  < 0.0001). Disease activity-based analysis suggested that COVID-19 occurrence was significantly lower in active vitiligo (AV) patients as compared to stable vitiligo (SV) patients(6.87% 31.57%;  = 0.0045). Furthermore, COVID-19 development was significantly reduced in positive individuals as compared to negative individuals ( = 0.0025). Overall, our study suggests, for the first time, that allele might be a genetic risk factor for GV susceptibility, and an ongoing immune response in GV patients, more specifically in AV patients, might protect against COVID-19 infection in South Gujarat population. Additionally, our study highlighted the likely role of in protection against COVID-19 development.