Team sport, power, and combat athletes are at high genetic risk for coronavirus disease-2019 severity

J Sport Health Sci. 2020 Sep;9(5):430-431. doi: 10.1016/j.jshs.2020.07.010. Epub 2020 Jul 31.

¹ Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L3 5AF, UK; Sports Genetics Laboratory, St Petersburg Research Institute of Physical Culture, St Petersburg 191040, Russia; Department of Physical Education, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Moscow 115093, Russia; Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Central Research Laboratory, Kazan State Medical University, Kazan 420012, Russia. Electronic address: i.akhmetov@ljmu.ac.uk.
² Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Federal Research and Clinical Center of Physical-Chemical Medicine of Federal Medical Biological Agency, Moscow 119435, Russia; Institute for Genomic Statistics and Bioinformatics, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn 53127, Germany.
³ Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Federal Research and Clinical Center of Physical-Chemical Medicine of Federal Medical Biological Agency, Moscow 119435, Russia.
⁴ Department of Physical Education, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Moscow 125167, Russia.
⁵ Department of Physical Education, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Moscow 115093, Russia.
⁶ School of Sport and Wellbeing, Institute of Coaching and Performance, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE, UK.

Abstract

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Predictive genetic testing of an asymptomatic person has considerable potential to predict future risk of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) severity.
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Risk alleles for COVID-19 severity due to the pleiotropic effects are associated with performance-related traits.
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Team sport, power, and combat athletes possess a higher genetic risk for COVID-19 severity than untrained subjects or endurance athletes.
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Polygenic risk scores based on 6 gene polymorphisms show a significant geographical variation, putting some countries at greater risk than others.