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Type 2 diabetes and its genetic susceptibility are associated with increased severity and mortality of COVID-19 in UK Biobank.

Aeyeon LeeJieun SeoSeunghwan ParkYoungkwang ChoGaeun KimA Heather EliassenLiming LiangTaesung ParkWonil Chung
Published in: Communications biology (2024)
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is known as one of the important risk factors for the severity and mortality of COVID-19. Here, we evaluate the impact of T2D and its genetic susceptibility on the severity and mortality of COVID-19, using 459,119 individuals in UK Biobank. Utilizing the polygenic risk scores (PRS) for T2D, we identified a significant association between T2D or T2D PRS, and COVID-19 severity. We further discovered the efficacy of vaccination and the pivotal role of T2D-related genetics in the pathogenesis of severe COVID-19. Moreover, we found that individuals with T2D or those in the high T2D PRS group had a significantly increased mortality rate. We also observed that the mortality rate for SARS-CoV-2-infected patients was approximately 2 to 7 times higher than for those not infected, depending on the time of infection. These findings emphasize the potential of T2D PRS in estimating the severity and mortality of COVID-19.
Keyphrases
  • sars cov
  • coronavirus disease
  • type diabetes
  • cardiovascular events
  • respiratory syndrome coronavirus
  • cardiovascular disease
  • genome wide
  • gene expression