COVID-19 susceptibility variants associate with blood clots, thrombophlebitis and circulatory diseases

Papadopoulou, A.; Musa, H.; Sivaganesan, M.; McCoy, D.; Deloukas, P.; Marouli, E.

Objective Epidemiological studies suggest that individuals with comorbid conditions including diabetes, chronic lung diseases and others, are at higher risk of adverse COVID-19 outcomes. Genome-wide association studies have identified several loci associated with increased susceptibility and severity for COVID-19. However, it is not clear whether these associations are genetically determined or not. We used a Phenome-Wide Association (PheWAS) approach to investigate the role of genetically determined COVID-19 susceptibility on disease related outcomes. Approach and Results PheWAS analyses were performed in order to identify traits and diseases related to COVID-19 susceptibility and severity, evaluated through a predictive COVID-19 risk score. We utilised phenotypic data in up to 400,000 individuals from the UK Biobank, including Hospital Episode Statistics and General Practice data. We identified a spectrum of associations between both genetically determined COVID-19 susceptibility and severity with a number of traits. COVID-19 risk was associated with increased risk for phlebitis and thrombophlebitis (OR = 1.11, p = 5.36e-08). We also identified significant signals between COVID-19 susceptibility with blood clots in the leg (OR= 1.1, p = 1.66e-16) and with increased risk for blood clots in the lung (OR = 1.12, p = 1.45 e-10). Conclusions Our study identifies significant association of genetically determined COVID-19 with increased blood clot events in leg and lungs. The reported associations between both COVID-19 susceptibility and severity and other diseases adds to the identification and stratification of individuals at increased risk, adverse outcomes and long-term effects.