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Association of Toll-like receptor 7 variants with life-threatening COVID-19 disease in males: findings from a nested case-control study.

ABSTRACT: Recently, loss-of-function variants in TLR7 were identified in two families in which COVID-19 segregates like an X-linked recessive disorder environmentally conditioned by SARS-CoV-2. We investigated whether the two families represent the tip of the iceberg of a subset of COVID-19 male patients. This is a nested case-control study in which we compared male participants with extreme phenotype selected from the Italian GEN-COVID cohort of SARS-CoV-2-infected participants (<60 y, 79 severe cases versus 77 control cases). We applied the LASSO Logistic Regression analysis, considering only rare variants on young male subsets with extreme phenotype, picking up TLR7 as the most important susceptibility gene. Overall, we found TLR7 deleterious variants in 2.1% of severely affected males and in none of the asymptomatic participants. The functional gene expression profile analysis demonstrated a reduction in TLR7-related gene expression in patients compared with controls demonstrating an impairment in type I and II IFN responses. Young males with TLR7 loss-of-function variants and severe COVID-19 represent a subset of male patients contributing to disease susceptibility in up to 2% of severe COVID-19. Funded by private donors for the Host Genetics Research Project, the Intesa San Paolo for 2020 charity fund, and the Host Genetics Initiative. NCT04549831.

SUBMITTER: Fallerini C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7987337 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Association of Toll-like receptor 7 variants with life-threatening COVID-19 disease in males: findings from a nested case-control study.

Fallerini Chiara C Daga Sergio S Mantovani Stefania S Benetti Elisa E Picchiotti Nicola N Francisci Daniela D Paciosi Francesco F Schiaroli Elisabetta E Baldassarri Margherita M Fava Francesca F Palmieri Maria M Ludovisi Serena S Castelli Francesco F Quiros-Roldan Eugenia E Vaghi Massimo M Rusconi Stefano S Siano Matteo M Bandini Maria M Spiga Ottavia O Capitani Katia K Furini Simone S Mari Francesca F Renieri Alessandra A Mondelli Mario U MU Frullanti Elisa E

eLife 20210302

<h4>Background</h4>Recently, loss-of-function variants in TLR7 were identified in two families in which COVID-19 segregates like an X-linked recessive disorder environmentally conditioned by SARS-CoV-2. We investigated whether the two families represent the tip of the iceberg of a subset of COVID-19 male patients.<h4>Methods</h4>This is a nested case-control study in which we compared male participants with extreme phenotype selected from the Italian GEN-COVID cohort of SARS-CoV-2-infected parti ...[more]

PMID: 33650967

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Project description:BackgroundWhile 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.MethodsWe compared poly-amino acids variability from WES data in severely affected COVID-19 patients versus SARS-CoV-2 PCR-positive oligo-asymptomatic subjects.FindingsShorter 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-polyQ, possibly indicating receptor resistance (p = 0.042 Mann-Whitney U test). Inappropriately low serum testosterone level among carriers of the long-polyQ alleles (p = 0.0004 Mann-Whitney U test) predicted the need for intensive care in COVID-19 infected men. In agreement with the known anti-inflammatory action of testosterone, patients with long-polyQ and age ≥60 years had increased levels of CRP (p = 0.018, not accounting for multiple testing).InterpretationWe identify the first genetic polymorphism that appears to predispose some men to develop more severe disease. Failure of the endocrine feedback to overcome AR signaling defects by increasing testosterone levels during the infection leads to the polyQ tract becoming dominant to serum testosterone levels for the clinical outcome. These results may contribute to designing reliable clinical and public health measures and provide a rationale to test testosterone as adjuvant therapy in men with COVID-19 expressing long AR polyQ repeats.FundingMIUR project "Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2018-2020" to Department of Medical Biotechnologies University of Siena, Italy (Italian D.L. n.18 March 17, 2020) and "Bando Ricerca COVID-19 Toscana" project to Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Senese. Private donors for COVID-19 research and charity funds from Intesa San Paolo.

Project description:BackgroundThere is growing interest in the possible effect of perioperative anesthetic management on the growth and spread of cancer. The impact of perioperative use of opioids on cancer recurrence remains controversial and an assessment cannot yet be established based on current publications. This study aimed to assess the differential expression of opioid receptors between healthy and tumor tissues in patients with stage II and III colorectal cancer undergoing elective surgery by immunohistochemistry (IHC).MethodsPropensity-score matched case-control study nested in a retrospective cohort of patients with stage II or III colorectal. The primary endpoint was the difference in µ-opioid receptor (MOR) expression measured by IHC between tumor and healthy tissue in subject with or without recurrence. Secondary endpoints were to evaluate the differences in Opioid Growth Factor Receptor (OGFR), cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) production and protein kinase A (PKA) in the matched sample and from a from samples of colorectal cancer stored in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Genotype Tissue Expression Project (GTEx).ResultsThere was a significant difference in MOR receptor (median 3 [intequartile range IQR: 1-3] and 0 [IQR: 0-2], P<0.001) and OGFR receptor (median 6 [IQR: 5-6] and 2 [IQR: 1-2], P<0.001) in tumor and control tissue respectively. However, there were no significant differences in cAMP nor PKA expression between both types of tissues and in expression in any of the analyzed variables by recurrence status. The MOR and OGFR expression data from TCGA database were similar to our sample size data with lower expression of MOR and higher expression of OGFR in tumoural samples with a skewed distribution for MOR expression in tumor tissue both in patients with and without recurrence.ConclusionIn patients with stage II and III colorectal cancer, overall expression of MOR and OGFR was significantly increased but was not different between previously matched patients with or without recurrence. No differences were found in the analyzed metabolic pathway of cAMP-PKA: These results were confirmed by an in silico analysis of samples from the TCGA-GTEx database.

Dataset Information

Association of Toll-like receptor 7 variants with life-threatening COVID-19 disease in males: findings from a nested case-control study.

Publications

Association of Toll-like receptor 7 variants with life-threatening COVID-19 disease in males: findings from a nested case-control study.

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