Cent Eur J Public Health 2023, 31(4):235-239 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a7906

Possible effect of OAS1 and TMPRSS6 but not DPP4 and ZNF335 polymorphisms on COVID-19 severity in the Czech population

Jaroslav A. Hubáček^{1, 2}, Tom Philipp³, Věra Adámková⁴, Ondřej Májek^{5, 6}, Dana Dlouhá¹, Ladislav Dušek^{5, 6}

¹ Experimental Medicine Centre, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic

² Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Third Department of Internal Medicine, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and General University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic

³ Clinic of Rheumatology and Physiotherapy, Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and Thomayer University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic

⁴ Department of Preventive Cardiology, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic

⁵ Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic

⁶ Institute of Biostatistics and Analyses, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Objectives: The acute respiratory syndrome, known as COVID-19, is characterised by high morbidity and increased mortality. Genetic factors may partially explain the differences in susceptibility to and severity of COVID-19.

Methods: We have analysed common functional polymorphisms within the OAS1 (rs4767027), TMPRSS6 (rs855791), DPP4 (rs3788979), and ZNF335 (rs3848719) genes in SARS-CoV-2 positive subjects (n = 521, different disease severity) and in population controls (n = 2,559 subjects, COVID-19 status unknown).

Results: Neither DPP4 nor ZNF335 were associated with disease susceptibility or severity in the Czech population in any of the models used for calculation. T allele carriers of the OAS1 polymorphism seem to be protective against symptomatic COVID-19 (p = 0.002 calculated for trend; asymptomatic, symptomatic, hospitalised). Similarly, within the TMPRSS6, minor TT homozygotes associated with lower plasma Fe concentrations were underrepresented in the overall patient group (p = 0.044; OR = 0.77, 95% CI: 0.59-0.99), and the difference was mainly driven by the severe COVID-19 subjects. In general, risky homozygotes of these two polymorphisms were less frequent than expected in the group of hospitalised COVID-19 survivors.

Conclusions: Common variants within OAS1 (rs4767027) and TMPRSS6 (rs855791) play some role in COVID-19 pathology in the Czech Caucasian population. Whether the depletion of minor allele carriers of these two variants is associated with increased COVID-19 mortality, needs to be analysed in an external confirmatory study.

Keywords: COVID-19, DPP4, OAS1, polymorphism, SARS-CoV-2, severity, TMPRSS6, ZNF335

Received: June 1, 2023; Revised: October 5, 2023; Accepted: October 5, 2023; Published: December 30, 2023  Show citation