Abstract
BACKGROUND: This study aims to investigate the association between candidate host genetic polymorphisms and COVID-19 susceptibility, severity, hospitalization, hypoxia, and their combined effect, measured by the polygenic risk score (PRS). METHODS: Three hundred and seventy-six Lebanese participants, comprising 151 controls and 225 cases, were included. Clinical data were obtained from questionnaires and medical records. DNA isolated from peripheral blood was genotyped for ACE1 rs1799752, ACE2 rs2074192, TMPRSS2 rs75603675 and OAS1 rs107746771 using TaqMan assays, and for TMPRSS2 rs35074065 using Sanger Sequencing. Candidate genetic variants were analyzed in association with COVID-19 susceptibility, severity, hospitalization and hypoxia, using univariate and multivariate models. PRS constructed from the weighted sum of variants was evaluated in association with COVID-19 outcomes. RESULTS: In this study, there were no statistically significant differences in the frequencies of candidate variant alleles between cases, controls and within disease outcomes subgroups, after adjustment for confounders. PRS was not associated with COVID-19 susceptibility and hospitalization, it however significantly predicted COVID-19 severity (P = 0.01). CONCLUSION: This study highlights the importance of genetic testing for key host genes involved in COVID-19 life cycle and eventually measuring the PRS which proves to be an important tool for prognosis assessment in vulnerable individuals, potentially enhancing patient care.