Highlights Differential distribution of ACE I/D polymorphism observed in Asian countries. Allele D of ACE I/D polymorphism was associated with susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection. The minor allele of ACE I/D was linked with COVID-19 mortality in the Asian population.

Background: Novel coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) has spread worldwide, and to date presence of the virus has been recorded in 215 countries contributing 0.43 million of death. The role of blood groups in susceptibility/resistance to various infectious diseases has been reported. However, the association of blood groups with susceptibility to COVID-19 infections or related death are limited. In the present report, we performed an epidemiological investigation in the Indian population to decipher the importance of blood groups concerning susceptibility or mortality in COVID-19 infection. Materials and Methods: Data on COVID-19 infection and mortality was obtained from the website of the Government of India. Prevalence of ABO blood groups in different states and union territories of India were searched using different databases such as PubMed and Google Scholar. Relevant articles were downloaded, and data were extracted. Spearman’s rank coefficient analysis was employed to study the correlation between blood group frequencies and COVID-19 infection or mortality rate. Results: A significant inverse correlation was observed between the frequency of O blood group and the COVID-19 mortality rate (Spearman r = -0.36, P=0.03), indicating a possible protective role of O blood group against COVID-19 related death. In contrast, the prevalence of blood group B was positively correlated with COVID-19 death/million (Spearman r = 0.67, P<0.0001), suggesting B blood type as a deleterious factor in COVID-19 infection. Conclusions: ABO blood group system is associated with poor prognosis of COVID-19 infection. Blood group O may protects, and subjects with blood type B could be susceptible to COVID-19 mortality. However, further studies on COVID-19 infected patients in different population are required to validate our findings.

Highlights Differential distributions of vitamin D were observed in the Indian population. Vitamin D levels was inversely correlated with SARS-CoV-2 infection rate. COVID-19 mortality rate was negatively associated with mean vitamin D levels.

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Background Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disorder affecting various organ systems with unknown etiology. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interferon-alpha (IFN-α) have been shown to have a major role in disease pathogenesis, and they correlate with SLE disease activity, but reports in the literature are conflicting. The present study aims to investigate the significance of IL-6 and IFN-α levels in SLE pathogenesis in an eastern Indian cohort. Material and Methods 70 SLE patients fulfilled SLICC 2012 criteria, and 40 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC) were enrolled. Baseline characteristics along with disease activity were recorded for all patients. Levels of IL-6 and IFN-α were measured by using ELISA. For the meta-analysis, published articles were searched through different databases. Two independent researchers extracted data, and the meta-analysis was performed with CMA v3.1. Results The plasma levels of IL-6 and IFN-α in SLE patients were significantly elevated compared to HC (IL-6: p < .0001, IFN-α: p = 0.01). SLEDAI score correlated positively with plasma IL-6 ( p < .0001, r = 0.46) and IFN-α levels ( p < .0001; r = 0.47). Meta-analysis of previous reports, including our case–control data, revealed higher IL-6 ( p < .0001) and IFN-α ( p = .005) in SLE patients compared to HC. Furthermore, IL-6 ( p < .0001, r = 0.526) and IFN-α ( p < .0001; r = 0.371) levels positively correlated with the disease activity. Conclusion IL-6 and IFN-α levels are elevated in SLE and they correlate with disease activity. Further studies with a larger sample size in different populations are required to validate our findings.