The blood group antigens are an example of polymorphic traits inherited among individuals and populations. There are 34 recognised human blood groups and hundreds of individual blood group antigens and alleles. The variation in blood group system leads to variations in host susceptibility to many infections. Microorganisms interact with antibodies against blood group antigens, including ABO, T, and Kell systems.6 The blood group antigens of the H, ABO, Lewis, and historical ‘P’ blood groups contains small carbohydrate epitopes expressed as post-translational modifications on glycoproteins, mucins, and glycolipids. The ABO system (International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) 001) contains two structurally related carbohydrate antigens, A and B. The O or H antigen is the biosynthetic precursor of A and B antigens and is classified as a separate blood group system (ISBT 018). All three antigens consist of 2 to 3 terminal oligosaccharides on glycoproteins and glycolipids.14 The varying rates of evolution of COVID-19 in two populations may be due to different gene frequency distributions of the blood group and may lead to differences in susceptibility to COVID-19.15
In order to evaluate the relationship between COVID-19 susceptibility and ABO blood group phenotypes, the null hypothesis H0 that the blood group ratio A:B:AB:O in COVID-19 patients (observed frequency) is exactly the same as the general population (expected frequency) was tested, ie,
H0 : A, AB, B, O are in the ratio 22 : 9 : 39 : 30
The results showed that H0 was rejected(Table 1). The observed frequency of blood group ‘A’ was found to be higher than the expected frequency. Also, observed frequencies in other blood groups were lower than the expected frequencies. If observed frequency is higher than expected frequency in one cell, it has to be lower in one or more of the other cells since the total for both the observed and expected frequencies is the same. Thus, rejecting H0 does not indicate which observed frequency is different from the expected one. In order to check whether the observed frequency of blood group ‘A’ is higher than the expected frequency further partition analysis was performed, and two more hypotheses were tested. The corresponding hypotheses were:
H0A: AB, B, O are in the ratio 12 : 50 : 38.2
and
H0B : A and non-A are in the ratio 22 : 78
The results showed there was no significant difference in observed ratios of AB : B : O blood groups when compared with expected (p = 0.89). However, there was a significant difference in the observed ratio A : non-A blood groups when compared with expected (p = 0.001) (Table 2). Thus, it was concluded that blood group ‘A’ was more susceptible to COVID-19 than ‘non-A’ groups. Further there were no significant relationships between the ‘AB’, ‘B’ and ‘O’ blood groups and COVID-19 susceptibility. The power of chi-squared tests for H0, H0A, and H0B hypotheses were 79.5% , 6.7% and 90.2 %, respectively (25). No relationship was found between the Rh (D) antigen and SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility (Power = 10%). Also, the Kell negative appeared to be more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection (Power = 99.8%). However, exact multinomial test seems to be more accurate. The power analysis showed that type II error was high in hypothesis H0A and HRh due to the small sample size and conclusions on significance could not be made.
Goker (2020) investigated ABO blood groups for 186 patients and reported that blood group A (57%) was the most frequently detected among the COVID-19 patients, followed by the blood group O (24.8 %). However, no association between blood group and clinical outcome was established. The Blood group A individuals were significantly higher in number with COVID-19 compared to controls (57 % vs 38 %, p < 0.001; OR: 2.1). While the frequency of blood group O was significantly lower in the COVID-19 patients, compared to the control group (24.8 % vs 37.2 %, p: 0.001; OR: 1.8).[16] Likewise, a retrospective cohort study with 265 patients from the Central Hospital of Wuhan showed there is a higher proportion of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 that have blood group ‘A’ than that in healthy controls (39.3 % vs. 32.3 %, p = 0.017), while the proportion of blood group ‘O’ in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 was significantly lower than that in healthy controls (25.7 % vs. 33.8 %, p < 0.01).17 In other recent findings, Ziadi (2020) reported a decreased efficiency of adhesion of the Spike protein to the angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor by antibody A, as suggested in other studies. He further stated that a lower susceptibility of blood group ‘B’ and ‘O’ was the case, but it did not explain susceptibility of the ‘AB’ blood group without anti A and anti B in the blood serum.18
In contrast to the above, a study of 397 patients reported an increase in COVID-19 infection associated with the 'AB' blood group.19 However, the other findings of Abdollahi (2020) regarding no significant relationship between Rh phenotypes with COVID-19 susceptibility were consistent with the results presented in this study.19 A study using data from anti-A and anti-B antibodies rather than ABO blood group reported subjects with anti-A (ie, B and O blood groups) were significantly less susceptible to COVID-19 than those lacking anti-A regardless of group whereas there was no significant difference for anti-B in the serum.20 Similarly, Guillon et al (2008) and Gustafsson et al (2005) argued that either a monoclonal anti-A antibody or natural plasma anti-A present in blood group ‘O’ specifically inhibited the SARS-CoV S protein/ACE2-dependent adhesion to ACE2-expressing cell lines. Therefore, ABO polymorphism could contribute to substantially reducing SARS-CoV transmission.21, 22 The results from Gustafsson et al (2005) confirmed that the glycans have more potential to carry variations than proteins and nucleic acids. The well-known example is polymorphic terminal glycosylation of the ABO blood group family of antigens. The association between infectious diseases and ABO antigens at mucosal surfaces leads to differential adherence of pathogens. Another way the blood group types might affect susceptibility is interaction with the coagulation system. Some factors like von Willebrand factor and factor VIII affect in vivo half-life and clearance of blood type antigens.23
Similarly, Dai et al (2020) studied the interaction among COVID-19 cases, hypertension, and ABO blood grouping. They reported that hypertensive patients the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAS) was overexpressed due to inhibitors of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE2). The expression of ACE2 receptors was upregulated in hypertensives. The ACE2 receptor was the primary entry site for SARS-CoV-2. Dai (2020) mentioned that the ABO blood group was associated with ACE activity and ACE inhibitors induced cough.
The GATC haplotype of the ABO gene polymorphism is prevalent among the non-O blood type patients and is positively associated with an ACE activity. Therefore, O blood type carriers have lower ACE levels and are less susceptible to COVID-19 infection.[24] In a recent genome-wide association study between COVID-19 and disease severity (respiratory failure) 1,980 patients were included from Italy and Spain. Ellinghaus et al (2020) analysed 8,582,968 single-nucleotide polymorphisms and conducted a meta-analysis of the two case–control panels. They found significant cross-replicating associations with rs11385942 at locus 3p21.31 and with rs657152 at locus 9q34.2. The association signal at locus 9q34.2 coincided with the ABO blood group locus. In a blood-group–specific analysis, blood group A showed higher risk than in other blood groups (odds ratio, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.20 to 1.75) and blood group O showed a protective effect as compared to other blood groups (odds ratio, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.79).[25]
There may be other mechanisms responsible for higher susceptibility of particular blood group phenotypes that require further studies.