The Usefulness of Rare Blood Group Systems in the Risk Determination for Severe COVID-19

Theocharis G Konstantinidis; Valeria Iliadi; Georges Martinis; Maria Panopoulou

doi:10.3390/pathophysiology28040032

The Usefulness of Rare Blood Group Systems in the Risk Determination for Severe COVID-19

Pathophysiology. 2021 Nov 3;28(4):496-500. doi: 10.3390/pathophysiology28040032.

Authors

Theocharis G Konstantinidis^{1

2}, Valeria Iliadi³, Georges Martinis¹, Maria Panopoulou²

Affiliations

¹ Blood Transfusion Center, University General Hospital of Alexandroupolis Dragana Campus, 68100 Alexandroupolis, Greece.
² Laboratory of Microbiology, Democritus University of Thrace, University General Hospital of Alexandroupolis Dragana Campus, 68100 Alexandroupolis, Greece.
³ Izhevsk State Medical Academy, Kommunarov Street 281, 426034 Izhevsk, Russia.

Abstract

The newly identified human coronavirus was named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), based on a detailed analysis of clinical manifestation. It was reported that blood type O individuals were less likely to become infected by SARS-CoV, while blood type A individuals have an increased risk of severe illness. The Forssman antigen, or Forssman glycolipid synthase (FS), was first described in 1911 by John Frederick Forssman. Blood type A/B glycosyltransferases (AT/BTs) and Forssman glycolipid synthase (FS) are encoded by the evolutionarily related ABO (A/B alleles) and GBGT1 genes. In this article, based on published studies about the pathogenesis of the COVID-19, we hypothesize the possible relationship between the COVID-19 infection and rare blood type systems, such as the Forssman antigen system.

Keywords: COVID-19; Forssman antigen; blood type.