Comparison of COVID-19 outcomes with alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency
prevalence: A cross-sectional study.
Abstract
Background: We hypothesized that the geographic distributions of
COVID-19 prevalence and risky alpha-1-antitrypsin allele prevalence are
similar. We aimed to investigate whether there is a relationship between
the geographical density of the COVID-19 pandemic and the distributions
of risky alpha-1-antitrypsin alleles. Methods: This research is a
cross-sectional study. Alpha-1-antitrypsin PI*SZ and PI*ZZ genotypes
frequencies of European and American countries were compared with the
case and death data related to the COVID-19 pandemic as of March 30,
2021. The relationship between the data was evaluated using Linear
regression analysis. Results: According to the linear regression
analysis results, a significant relationship was found between the
number of COVID-19 cases in both European and American countries and the
sum of PI*SZ and PI*ZZ genotypes. Similarly, according to the linear
regression analysis results, a significant relationship was found
between the COVID-19 death numbers in both European and American
countries and the sum of PI*SZ and PI*ZZ genotypes. Conclusions: The
findings showed that the prevalence distribution of the risky alleles of
the gene defect that causes alpha-1-antitrypsin insufficiency is related
to the prevalence of COVID-19 pandemic data.