Study: The risk of developing severe COVID-19 may depend on the blood group.

A group of scientists conducting a genetic analysis of patients with coronavirus found that a blood group can influence the development of COVID-19 disease. Writes about it Fox News.

Photo: Shutterstock

In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the genes of thousands of European patients were compared. As a result, it turned out that people with type A blood (second group) more often than average have a severe course of COVID-19 disease. And in people with type O blood (the first group), the development of severe symptoms of the disease is less likely than the average among all patients.

The study comes after a similar study from China published in March found that people with type O(I) blood may be more resistant to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, while people with type A(II) blood may be at risk.

"Most of us discounted it because it was a very crude study," said Dr. Parameswar Hari, a blood specialist at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Following the new study, he said, “I now believe” that “this could be very important.”

A recent study involving scientists from Italy, Spain, Denmark, Germany and other countries compared 1 patients with severe COVID-980 with several thousand other people who were otherwise healthy or had only mild symptoms. Researchers link differences in six genes to the likelihood of severe disease, and blood types to potential risk.

Hari said people with type O(I) are better at recognizing certain proteins as foreign, which can spread across the surface of the virus. During the SARS outbreak (essentially a genetic relative of the new coronavirus), “it was noted that people with blood type I were less likely to get severe illness,” he added.

Critics insisted on caution due to certain factors, in particular, how a limited number of patients were presented in the most recent study.

On the subject: Scientists called a blood group whose owners are less likely to get COVID-19

For comparison: the 23andMe genetic testing firm published a study in which 750 participants took part. His goal was to help scientists better understand how genetics can influence the course of CJVID-000 and why people infected with the new coronavirus have different levels of severity and symptoms.

However, in a wider study, it was found that blood type O (I) is 9-18% less likely to give a positive result on COVID-19 compared to other blood groups, which echoes the latest European study.

There are four main blood types - A (II), B (III), AB (IV) and O (I) - and "this is determined by proteins on the surface of your red blood cells," said Dr. Mary Horowitz, scientific director of the Center for International Transplant Research blood and bone marrow.

Blood type is also associated with susceptibility to several other infectious diseases, including cholera, recurrent urinary tract infections caused by Escherichia coli, and H. pylori, which can cause stomach ulcers and cancer, said Dr. David Valle, Director of the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins University .

“This is a new study, and in my opinion it is worth publishing. But at the same time, this study needs to be conducted on a larger number of patients,” summed up Valle.

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Scientists called a blood group whose owners are less likely to get COVID-19

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