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Updated: Aug 20, 2025

Author Spotlight: Integrated Multi-Omics Analysis for Unveiling Multicellular Immune Signatures in Clinical Heart Attack Cohorts
Published on: September 20, 2024
Shared genetic influences between blood analyte levels and risk of severe COVID-19
Hamzeh M Tanha1, Anita Sathyanarayanan1, Divya Mehta1
1School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health, and Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), 60 Musk Avenue, Kelvin Grove, Brisbane, QLD 4059, Australia.
Abstract:
Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) show that genetic factors contribute to the risk of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and blood analyte levels. Here, we utilize GWAS summary statistics to study the shared genetic influences (pleiotropy) between severe COVID-19 and 344 blood analytes at the genome, gene, and single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) levels. Our pleiotropy analyses genetically link blood levels of 71 analytes to severe COVID-19 in at least one of the three levels of investigation-suggesting shared biological mechanisms or causal relationships. Six analytes (alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, apolipoprotein B, C-reactive protein, triglycerides, and urate) display evidence of pleiotropy with severe COVID-19 at all three levels. Causality analyses indicate that higher triglycerides levels causally increase the risk of severe COVID-19, thereby providing important support for the use of lipid-lowering drugs such as statins and fibrates to prevent severe COVID-19.
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