Shorter androgen receptor polyQ alleles protect against life-threatening COVID-19 disease in European males.

ABSTRACT:

Background

While SARS-CoV-2 similarly infects men and women, COVID-19 outcome is less favorable in men. Variability in COVID-19 severity may be explained by differences in the host genome.

Methods

We compared poly-amino acids variability from WES data in severely affected COVID-19 patients versus SARS-CoV-2 PCR-positive oligo-asymptomatic subjects.

Findings

Shorter polyQ alleles (≤22) in the androgen receptor (AR) conferred protection against severe outcome in COVID-19 in the first tested cohort (both males and females) of 638 Italian subjects. The association between long polyQ alleles (≥23) and severe clinical outcome (p = 0.024) was also validated in an independent cohort of Spanish men <60 years of age (p = 0.014). Testosterone was higher in subjects with AR long-

SUBMITTER: Baldassarri M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7908850 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature