Bioinformatic HLA Studies in the Context of SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic and Review on Association of HLA Alleles with Preexisting Medical Conditions.

Mina Mobini Kesheh,Parastoo Hosseini,Sara Shavandi,Hossein Keyvani,Rezvan Kakavand-Ghalehnoei,Cassiano Felippe Gonçalves-De-Albuquerque

doi:10.1155/2021/6693909

Abstract

After the announcement of a new coronavirus in China in December 2019, which was then called SARS-CoV-2, this virus changed to a global concern and it was then declared as a pandemic by WHO. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles, which are one of the most polymorphic genes, play a pivotal role in both resistance and vulnerability of the body against viruses and other infections as well as chronic diseases. The association between HLA alleles and preexisting medical conditions such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus is reported in various studies. In this review, we focused on the bioinformatic HLA studies to summarize the HLA alleles which responded to SARS-CoV-2 peptides and have been used to design vaccines. We also reviewed HLA alleles that are associated with comorbidities and might be related to the high mortality rate among COVID-19 patients. Since both genes and patients' medical conditions play a key role in both severity of the disease and the mortality rate in COVID-19 patients, a better understanding of the connection between HLA alleles and SARS-CoV-2 can provide a wider perspective on the behavior of the virus. Such understanding can help scientists, especially in terms of protecting healthcare workers and designing effective vaccines.

Highlights

In late December 2019, China publicly revealed the occurrence of a new coronavirus, later called SARS-CoV-2
In Kiyotani et al.’s study that predicted T cell epitopes for SARS-CoV-2 in the Japanese population, HLAB∗46 : 01 represented a strong binding affinity with 0.5%ranked epitopes which is the top binding score in NetMHC tools which predict the binding of MHC classes I and II using artificial neural networks (ANNs) [35]
T cell epitope-based peptide vaccines even based on other coronavirus antigens may be candidates that can elicit the common Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) restriction in the worldwide population

Summary

Introduction

In late December 2019, China publicly revealed the occurrence of a new coronavirus, later called SARS-CoV-2. Human-to-human transmission was reported only after the zoonotic transmission of the new virus via animals in the seafood market [1]. SARS-CoV-2 has spread globally and led to all research focusing on improving methods of the diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, vaccine design, and control of COVID-19 disease. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles are encoded by genes at region 6p21 of the human genome [4]. Each HLA allele name may contain four sets of digits separated by colons. The HLA locus is separated by a star from the first two digits (HLA-DQA1∗). The first two digits are assigned to the allele group (HLA-DQA1∗01). The third and fourth digits indicate a particular HLA allele (HLA-DQA1∗01 : 02)

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