Abstract
The clinical condition COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, was declared a pandemic by the WHO in March 2020. Currently, there are more than 5 million cases worldwide, and the pandemic has increased exponentially in many countries, with different incidences and death rates among regions/ethnicities and, intriguingly, between sexes. In addition to the many factors that can influence these discrepancies, we suggest a biological aspect, the genetic variation at the viral S protein receptor in human cells, ACE2 (angiotensin I-converting enzyme 2), which may contribute to the worse clinical outcome in males and in some regions worldwide. We performed exomics analysis in native and admixed South American populations, and we also conducted in silico genomics databank investigations in populations from other continents. Interestingly, at least ten polymorphisms in coding, noncoding and regulatory sites were found that can shed light on this issue and offer a plausible biological explanation for these epidemiological differences. In conclusion, there are ACE2 polymorphisms that could influence epidemiological discrepancies observed among ancestry and, moreover, between sexes.
Highlights
At the end of 2019, a new outbreak caused by SARS-CoV-2 started in Hubei Province, China
Analyzing the polymorphisms contained in the ACE2 locus, in addition to ten thousand base pairs upstream, we found 2266 polymorphisms, of which 199 were contained in the region 5 ́ upstream of the gene, 85 were located in exonic regions, and the others were located in the introns
15 SNPs of the 85 polymorphisms found in 1000 Genomes Phase database (1000G) present differences greater than 1% between some of the populations
Summary
At the end of 2019, a new outbreak caused by SARS-CoV-2 (a coronavirus) started in Hubei Province, China. The clinical condition, COVID-19, probably arose from natural selection in bat reservoirs [1]. There are currently more than five million cases worldwide, and the pandemic has been increasing exponentially in many countries since the disease was deemed a pandemic by WHO in March 2020 [2]. The lethality rate is influenced by the speed of contagion, idiosyncrasies of the affected populations according to the containment policies adopted, socioeconomic conditions and the absorption limit of the health system [3]. Due to the high rate of transmission of the virus by air and the novelty of the infection to humans, the disease has become a global emergency.
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