Does blood type affect the COVID-19 infection pattern?

Abstract

Among the many aspects that characterize the COVID-19 pandemic, two seem particularly challenging to understand: i) the great geographical differences in the degree of virus contagiousness and lethality that were found in the different phases of the epidemic progression, and, ii) the potential role of the infected people’s blood type in both the virus infectivity and the progression of the disease. A recent hypothesis could shed some light on both aspects. Specifically, it has been proposed that, in the subject-to-subject transfer, SARS-CoV-2 conserves on its capsid the erythrocytes’ antigens of the source subject. Thus these conserved antigens can potentially cause an immune reaction in a receiving subject that has previously acquired specific antibodies for the source subject antigens. This hypothesis implies a blood type-dependent infection rate. The strong geographical dependence of the blood type distribution could be, therefore, one of the factors at the origin of the observed heterogeneity in the epidemics spread. Here, we present an epidemiological deterministic model where the infection rules based on blood types are taken into account, and we compare our model outcomes with the exiting worldwide infection progression data. We found an overall good agreement, which strengthens the hypothesis that blood types do play a role in the COVID-19 infection.

Associations Between Symptoms, Donor Characteristics and IgG Antibody Response in 2082 COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Donors

“…In addition, age above 50 and obesity are also associated with increased risk of severe outcome (8)(9)(10)(11). ABO blood type may also play a role in COVID-19 infection, but the exact influence remains unclear (12,13).…”

COVID-19 mRNA Vaccination, ABO Blood Type and the Severity of Self-Reported Reactogenicity in a Large Healthcare System: A Brief Report of a Cross-Sectional Study

“…Associations between ABO blood groups and the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection have been documented in the literature [8,9]. The literature is very limited, however, on any relationship between vaccine reactogenicity itself and the ABO blood type.…”

Country-level factors dynamics and ABO/Rh blood groups contribution to COVID-19 mortality

“…Importantly, the risk associated with a specific blood type changed, at population levels, depending on the epidemic phase (late vs early) and on the heterogeneity of blood type composition within specific populations or communities 51 . A report published while this work was under review, emphasizes the importance of blood histo-incompatibility demonstrating, in six different geographic regions, the dependency of the infection rate from country-specific blood groups distribution 52 . Hence, the results obtained in this work are in line with those described in recent studies with different methodologies and datasets.…”