Your blood group determines if you can catch severe COVID: Check if you are prone to disease
Recent studies have revealed that Blood groups may play an instrumental role in whether people develop severe forms of COVID-19. For example, if your blood group is A, then you have higher chances of catching coronavirus infections.
The study, published in the journal PLOS Genetics, analysed over 3000 proteins to identify which are causally linked to the development of severe COVID-19. And, they identified six proteins that could contribute to severe COVID-19 infections and eight that could contribute to protection from severe COVID-19.
As per the study, one of the proteins (ABO) that was identified as having a causal connection to the risk of developing severe COVID-19 determines blood groups, suggesting that blood groups play an instrumental role in whether people develop severe forms of the disease.
“We have used a purely genetic approach to investigate a large number of blood proteins and established that a handful have causal links to the development of severe COVID-19,” said study co-first author Alish Palmos from King’s College London. “Honing in on this group of proteins is a vital first step in discovering potentially valuable targets for development of new treatments.”
What did the study reveal?
The analysis identified that an enzyme (ABO) that determines blood group was causally associated with both an increased risk of hospitalisation and a requirement for respiratory support.
This supports previous findings around the association of blood group with higher likelihood of death, the researchers said.
Taken together with previous research showing that the proportion of group A is higher in COVID-19 positive individuals, this suggests blood group A is candidate for follow-up studies, they said.
“The enzyme helps determine the blood group of an individual and our study has linked it with both risk of hospitalisation and the need of respiratory support or death,” said study coauthor Christopher Hubel from King’s College London.