the ABO system and the severity of covid-19: In silico study

Abstract

Considering the ABO blood system as a risk factor in many infectious diseases is widely accepted and several hypothesis was proposed to explain this association. In COVID19 infection this association remain unclear. In this study we suggest that the A and B blood antigens could bind the structural proteins of the Sars-cov2 virus which has a potential to modulate the susceptibility and the severity of the infection. The objective of this study was to process an In silico, protein-protein molecular docking, and repurpose the ABO proteins antigen A and antigen B as ligand for the corona virus structural proteins in the purpose to find out a computational explanation for the epidemiological and clinical studies showing that the blood phenotype, mostly the A one, is risk factor for severe symptoms of the COVID19 This study primarily relied on molecular docking methods using free website such as Cluspro and HDOCK. Additionally, we utilized the software Discovery Studio 2021 to evaluate the result. The result illustrates that the despite that the B antigen has the highest affinity with the corona virus the three structural proteins (spike, N and E) compared to the A protein, the latest exhibit a stronger affinity M protein of the virus. Known that this structural protein a main role in the virus life cycle is essential for help in the production and release of virus-like particles. This high affinity interaction between the A antigen and M protein could be feasible in experimental tries and explain the severity of this infection in the host with A blood type. Interestingly, the ABO system protein shows more affinity with corona protein then their natural protein ligand except for N protein. This data gives a further argument that the red blood cell might play a crucial role in the spread of the virus whole over the body. In conclusion, this data gives a computational explanation for the link between the severity of the symptoms of the disease and the A blood phenotype of the patients