Minimal observed impact of HLA genotype on hospitalization and severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection

Abstract

HLA is a critical component of the viral antigen presentation pathway. We investigated the relationship between the severity of SARS-CoV-2 disease and HLA type in 3235 individuals with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. We found only the DPB1 locus to be associated with the binary outcome of whether an individual developed any COVID-19 symptoms. The number of peptides predicted to bind to an HLA allele had no significant relationship with disease severity both when stratifying individuals by ancestry or age and in a pooled analysis. Overall, at the population level, we found HLA type is significantly less predictive of COVID-19 disease severity than certain demographic factors and clinical comorbidities.