Imperial College London

DrWeihuaZhang

Faculty of MedicineSchool of Public Health

Honorary Research Associate
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 1612weihua.zhang

 
 
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Location

 

165Medical SchoolSt Mary's Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Farooqi:2023:10.1186/s12920-023-01584-x,
author = {Farooqi, R and Zhang, W and Kooner, J},
doi = {10.1186/s12920-023-01584-x},
journal = {BMC Medical Genomics},
pages = {1--15},
title = {Associations between polygenic risk score and COVID-19 susceptibility and severity across ethnic groups: UK biobank analysis},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12920-023-01584-x},
volume = {16},
year = {2023}
}

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB - BackgroundCOVID-19 manifests with huge heterogeneity in susceptibility and severity outcomes. UK Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups have demonstrated disproportionate burdens. Some variability remains unexplained, suggesting potential genetic contribution. Polygenic Risk Scores (PRS) can determine genetic predisposition to disease based on Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) within the genome. COVID-19 PRS analyses within non-European samples are extremely limited. We applied a multi-ethnic PRS to a UK-based cohort to understand genetic contribution to COVID-19 variability.MethodsWe constructed two PRS for susceptibility and severity outcomes based on leading risk-variants from the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative. Scores were applied to 447,382 participants from the UK-Biobank. Associations with COVID-19 outcomes were assessed using binary logistic regression and discriminative power was validated using incremental area under receiver operating curve (ΔAUC). Variance explained was compared between ethnic groups via incremental pseudo-R2 (ΔR2).ResultsCompared to those at low genetic risk, those at high risk had a significantly greater risk of severe COVID-19 for White (odds ratio [OR] 1.57, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.42–1.74), Asian (OR 2.88, 95% CI 1.63–5.09) and Black (OR 1.98, 95% CI 1.11–3.53) ethnic groups. Severity PRS performed best within Asian (ΔAUC 0.9%, ΔR2 0.98%) and Black (ΔAUC 0.6%, ΔR2 0.61%) cohorts. For susceptibility, higher genetic risk was significantly associated with COVID-19 infection risk for the White cohort (OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.26–1.36), but not for Black or Asian groups.ConclusionsSignificant associations between PRS and COVID-19 outcomes were elicited, establishing a genetic basis for variability in COVID-19. PRS showed utility in identifying high-risk individuals. The multi-ethnic approach allowed applicability of PRS to diverse populations, with the severity mo
AU - Farooqi,R
AU - Zhang,W
AU - Kooner,J
DO - 10.1186/s12920-023-01584-x
EP - 15
PY - 2023///
SN - 1755-8794
SP - 1
TI - Associations between polygenic risk score and COVID-19 susceptibility and severity across ethnic groups: UK biobank analysis
T2 - BMC Medical Genomics
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12920-023-01584-x
UR - https://bmcmedgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12920-023-01584-x
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/105127
VL - 16
ER -