The Major Genetic Risk Factor for Severe COVID-19 Does Not Show Any Association Among Indian Populations (preprint)

With the growing evidence on the variable human susceptibility against COVID-19, it is evident that some genetic loci modulate the severity of the infection. Recent studies have identified several loci associated with greater severity. More recently, a study has identified a 50kb segment introgressed from Neanderthal adding a risk for COVID-19, and this trait is present among 16% and 50% people of European and South Asian origin respectively. Contrary to this finding, our studies on ACE2 identified a haplotype present among 20% and 60% of European and South Asian populations respectively, which appears to be responsible for the low case fatality ratio among South Asian populations. This result was also consistent with the realtime infection rate and case fatality ratio among various states of India. We readdressed this issue using both of the contrasting datasets and compared them with the realtime infection rates and case fatality ratio in India. We found out that the polymorphism present in the 50kb introgressed segment (rs10490770) did not show any significant correlation with the realtime infection and case fatality ratio in India.

Estimation of real-infection and immunity against SARS-CoV-2 in Indian populations (preprint)

Infection born by Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has swept the world within a time of a few months. It has created a devastating effect on humanity with social and economic depressions. Europe and America were the hardest hit continents. India has also lost several lives, making the country fourth most deadly worldwide. However, the infection and death rate per million and the case fatality ratio in India were substantially lower than many of the developed nations. Several factors have been proposed including the genetics. One of the important facts is that a large chunk of Indian population is asymptomatic to the SARS-CoV-2 infection. Thus, the real infection in India is much higher than the reported number of cases. Therefore, the majority of people are already immune in the country. To understand the dynamics of real infection as well as level of immunity against SARS-CoV-2, we have performed antibody testing (serosurveillance) in the urban region of fourteen Indian districts encompassing six states. In our survey, the seroprevalence frequency varied between 0.01-0.48, suggesting high variability of viral transmission among states. We also found out that the cases reported by the Government were several fold lower than the real infection. This discrepancy is majorly driven by a higher number of asymptomatic cases. Overall, we suggest that with the high level of immunity developed against SARS-CoV-2 in the majority of the districts, it is less likely to have a second wave in India.

The major genetic risk factor for severe COVID-19 among Europeans does not show any association among Indian populations (preprint)

With the growing evidence on the variable human susceptibility against COVID-19, it is clear that there are some genetic loci modulating the severity. Recent studies have identified several loci associated with the higher severity. More recently, a study has identified 50kb segment introgressed from Neanderthal adding risk for COVID-19, and is  present among 16% and 50% people of European and South Asian origin respectively. Contrary to that, our studies on ACE2 identified a haplotype present among 20% and 60% of European and South Asian populations respectively, was probably responsible for the low case fatality ratio among South Asian populations. This result was also consistent with the realtime infection rate and case fatality ratio among various states of India. We readdressed this issue using both of the contrasting datasets and compared them with the realtime infection rates and case fatality ratio in India. We found out that that the polymorphism present in 50kb introgressed segment (rs10490770) did not show any significant correlation with the realtime infection and case fatality ratio in India.With the growing evidence on the variable human susceptibility against COVID-19, it is clear that there are some genetic loci modulating the severity. Recent studies have identified several loci associated with the higher severity. More recently, a study has identified 50kb segment introgressed from Neanderthal adding risk for COVID-19, and is  present among 16% and 50% people of European and South Asian origin respectively. Contrary to that, our studies on ACE2 identified a haplotype present among 20% and 60% of European and South Asian populations respectively, was probably responsible for the low case fatality ratio among South Asian populations. This result was also consistent with the realtime infection rate and case fatality ratio among various states of India. We readdressed this issue using both of the contrasting datasets and compared them with the realtime infection rates and case fatality ratio in India. We found out that that the polymorphism present in 50kb introgressed segment (rs10490770) did not show any significant correlation with the realtime infection and case fatality ratio in India.