Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 25, 2025

Candidate Gene Testing in Clinical Cohort Studies with Multiplexed Genotyping and Mass Spectrometry
05:53

Candidate Gene Testing in Clinical Cohort Studies with Multiplexed Genotyping and Mass Spectrometry

Published on: June 21, 2018

10.2K

Associations between polygenic risk score and covid-19 susceptibility and severity across ethnic groups: UK Biobank

Raabia Farooqi1, Jaspal S Kooner2,3,4,5, Weihua Zhang6,2

  • 1Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Imperial College London, London, W2 1PG, UK. raabia.farooqi18@imperial.ac.uk.

BMC Medical Genomics
|June 29, 2023
PubMed

Insights

Polygenic Risk Scores (PRS) reveal genetic links to COVID-19 severity, particularly in Asian and Black ethnic groups. This genetic risk assessment aids in identifying individuals susceptible to severe COVID-19 outcomes.

Area of Science:

  • Genetics
  • Epidemiology
  • Infectious Disease

Background:

  • COVID-19 exhibits varied susceptibility and severity, with disproportionate impacts on UK Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups.
  • Genetic factors may explain some of the unexplained variability in COVID-19 outcomes.
  • Polygenic Risk Scores (PRS) assess genetic predisposition using Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs), but analyses in non-European populations are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To apply a multi-ethnic Polygenic Risk Score (PRS) to a UK cohort to investigate the genetic contribution to COVID-19 variability.
  • To assess the association between PRS and COVID-19 susceptibility and severity across different ethnic groups.
  • To evaluate the utility of PRS in identifying individuals at higher genetic risk for COVID-19.

Main Methods:

  • Two PRS were developed for COVID-19 susceptibility and severity based on established risk variants.
  • The PRS were applied to 447,382 participants in the UK-Biobank.
  • Associations with COVID-19 outcomes were analyzed using logistic regression, with discriminative power assessed by ΔAUC and variance explained by ΔR².

Main Results:

  • High genetic risk was significantly associated with increased severe COVID-19 risk in White, Asian, and Black ethnic groups.
  • The severity PRS demonstrated strong performance in Asian (ΔAUC 0.9%, ΔR² 0.98%) and Black (ΔAUC 0.6%, ΔR² 0.61%) cohorts.
  • For susceptibility, higher genetic risk correlated with infection risk in White individuals but not in Black or Asian groups.

Conclusions:

  • Significant associations between PRS and COVID-19 outcomes confirm a genetic basis for disease variability.
  • PRS are useful for identifying individuals at high risk for severe COVID-19.
  • The multi-ethnic PRS approach is applicable to diverse populations, with the severity model showing promise in Black and Asian cohorts, though larger non-White sample sizes are needed for enhanced statistical power.
Abstract

Keywords:
Black Asian Minority EthnicCOVID-19Polygenic Risk Scoregenetic riskseveritysusceptibility

More Related Videos

Generation of High Quality Chromatin Immunoprecipitation DNA Template for High-throughput Sequencing ChIP-seq09:52

Generation of High Quality Chromatin Immunoprecipitation DNA Template for High-throughput Sequencing ChIP-seq

Published on: April 19, 2013

24.5K
Generalized Psychophysiological Interaction PPI Analysis of Memory Related Connectivity in Individuals at Genetic Risk for Alzheimer's Disease09:38

Generalized Psychophysiological Interaction PPI Analysis of Memory Related Connectivity in Individuals at Genetic Risk for Alzheimer's Disease

Published on: November 14, 2017

15.0K

Related Concept Videos

Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms-SNPs01:05

Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms-SNPs

A single nucleotide polymorphism or SNP is a single nucleotide variation at a specific genomic position in a large population. It is the most prevalent type of sequence variation found in the human genome. Point mutations that occur in more than 1% of the population qualify as SNPs. These are present once every 1000 nucleotides on an average in the human genome. Replacement of a purine with another purine (A/G) or a pyrimidine with another pyrimidine (C/T) is known as a transition. In contrast,...
15.3K
Genome-wide Association Studies-GWAS01:11

Genome-wide Association Studies-GWAS

Genome-wide association studies or GWAS are used to identify whether common SNPs are associated with certain diseases. Suppose specific SNPs are more frequently observed in individuals with a particular disease than those without the disease. In that case, those SNPs are said to be associated with the disease. Chi-square analysis is performed to check the probability of the allele likely to be associated with the disease.
GWAS does not require the identification of the target gene involved in...
13.6K
Polygenic Traits01:18

Polygenic Traits

When more than one gene is responsible for a given phenotype, the trait is considered polygenic. Human height is a polygenic trait. Studies have uncovered hundreds of loci that influence height, and there are believed to be many more. Due to the high number of genes involved, as well as environmental and nutritional factors, height varies significantly within a given population. The distribution of height forms a bell-shaped curve, with relatively few individuals in the population at the...
66.0K
Bias in Epidemiological Studies01:29

Bias in Epidemiological Studies

Biases can arise at various stages of research, from study design and data collection to analysis and interpretation. Recognizing and addressing these biases is essential to ensure the validity and reliability of epidemiological findings.Broadly speaking, biases in epidemiology fall into three main categories: selection bias, information bias, and confounding. A more detailed description of possible biases is:  
369
Types of Biopharmaceutical Studies: Controlled and Non-Controlled Approaches01:23

Types of Biopharmaceutical Studies: Controlled and Non-Controlled Approaches

Biopharmaceutical studies constitute a vital field aiming to enhance drug delivery methods and refine therapeutic approaches, drawing upon diverse interdisciplinary knowledge. In research methodologies, the choice between controlled and non-controlled studies significantly influences the study's reliability and accuracy.
Non-controlled studies, commonly employed for initial exploration, lack a control group, rendering them susceptible to biases and external influences. In contrast,...
148
Human Genetics01:28

Human Genetics

Human genetics provides a profound framework for understanding the interplay between genetic predispositions and human psychology. At the heart of this discipline lies the study of how genes influence physical traits, behaviors, and susceptibility to diseases. Each person carries a unique genetic code that subtly or significantly shapes their psychological and behavioral landscape.
The complex relationship between genetics and psychology is observable through common biological components such...
619