Genomic characterization of host factors related to SARS-CoV-2 infection in people with dementia and control populations: the GR@ACE/DEGESCO study

Emerging studies have suggested several chromosomal regions as potential host genetic factors involved in the susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection and disease outcome. We nested a COVID-19 genome-wide association study using the GR@ACE/DEGESCO study, searching for susceptibility factors associated with COVID-19 disease. To this end, we compared 221 COVID-19 confirmed cases with 17,035 individuals in whom the COVID-19 disease status was unknown. Then, we performed a meta-analysis with the publicly available data from the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative. Because the APOE locus has been suggested as a potential modifier of COVID-19 disease, we added sensitivity analyses stratifying by dementia status or by disease severity. We confirmed the existence of the 3p21.31 region (LZTFL1, SLC6A20) implicated in the susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection and TYK2 gene might be involved in COVID-19 severity. Nevertheless, no statistically significant association was observed in the COVID-19 fatal outcome or in the stratified analyses (dementia-only and non-dementia strata) for the APOE locus not supporting its involvement in SARS-CoV-2 pathobiology or COVID-19 prognosis

Correlations between the NMR Lipoprotein Profile, APOE Genotype, and Cholesterol Efflux Capacity of Fasting Plasma from Cognitively Healthy Elderly Adults

Cholesterol efflux capacity (CEC) is of interest given its potential relationship with several important clinical conditions including Alzheimer's disease. The inactivation of the APOE locus in mouse models supports the idea that it is involved in determining the CEC. With that in mind, we examine the impact of the plasma metabolome profile and the APOE genotype on the CEC in cognitively healthy elderly subjects. The study subjects were 144 unrelated healthy individuals. The plasma CEC was determined by exposing cultured mouse macrophages treated with BODIPY-cholesterol to human plasma. The metabolome profile was determined using NMR techniques. Multiple regression was performed to identify the most important predictors of CEC, as well as the NMR features most strongly associated with the APOE genotype. Plasma 3-hydroxybutyrate was the variable most strongly correlated with the CEC (r = 0.365; p = 7.3 × 10-6). Male sex was associated with a stronger CEC (r = -0.326, p = 6.8 × 10-5). Most of the NMR particles associated with the CEC did not correlate with the APOE genotype. The NMR metabolomics results confirmed the APOE genotype to have a huge effect on the concentration of plasma lipoprotein particles as well as those of other molecules including omega-3 fatty acids. In conclusion, the CEC of human plasma was associated with ketone body concentration, sex, and (to a lesser extent) the other features of the plasma lipoprotein profile. The APOE genotype exerted only a weak effect on the CEC via the modulation of the lipoprotein profile. The APOE locus was associated with omega-3 fatty acid levels independent of the plasma cholesterol level.Peer reviewe

Common variants in Alzheimer’s disease and risk stratification by polygenic risk scores

Genetic discoveries of Alzheimer’s disease are the drivers of our understanding, and together with polygenetic risk stratification can contribute towards planning of feasible and efficient preventive and curative clinical trials. We first perform a large genetic association study by merging all available case-control datasets and by-proxy study results (discovery n = 409,435 and validation size n = 58,190). Here, we add six variants associated with Alzheimer’s disease risk (near APP, CHRNE, PRKD3/NDUFAF7, PLCG2 and two exonic variants in the SHARPIN gene). Assessment of the polygenic risk score and stratifying by APOE reveal a 4 to 5.5 years difference in median age at onset of Alzheimer’s disease patients in APOE ɛ4 carriers. Because of this study, the underlying mechanisms of APP can be studied to refine the amyloid cascade and the polygenic risk score provides a tool to select individuals at high risk of Alzheimer’s disease.Fil: Dalmasso, Maria Carolina. Gobierno de la Provincia de la Pampa. Ministerio Publico. Laboratorio de Genetica Forense.; Argentina. Universitat zu Köln; Alemania. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Confluencia; ArgentinaFil: de Rojas, Itziar. Universitat Internacional de Catalunya; España. Instituto de Salud Carlos Iii (isciii); EspañaFil: Moreno Grau, Sonia. Universitat Internacional de Catalunya; España. Instituto de Salud Carlos Iii (isciii); EspañaFil: Tesi, Niccolo. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Países Bajos. Delft University of Technology; Países BajosFil: Grenier Boley, Benjamin. Universite Lille; FranciaFil: Andrade, Victor. Universitat zu Köln; Alemania. Universitat Bonn; AlemaniaFil: Pedersen, Nancy L.. Karolinska Huddinge Hospital. Karolinska Institutet; SueciaFil: Stringa, Najada. University of Amsterdam; Países BajosFil: Zettergren, Anna. University of Gothenburg; SueciaFil: Hernández, Isabel. Universitat Internacional de Catalunya; España. Instituto de Salud Carlos Iii (isciii); EspañaFil: Montrreal, Laura. Universitat Internacional de Catalunya; EspañaFil: Antúnez, Carmen. Hospital Clínico Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca; EspañaFil: Antonell, Anna. Universidad de Barcelona; EspañaFil: Tankard, Rick M.. Murdoch University; AustraliaFil: Bis, Joshua C.. University of Washington; Estados UnidosFil: Sims, Rebecca. Cardiff University; Reino UnidoFil: Bellenguez, Céline. Universite Lille; FranciaFil: Quintela, Inés. Universidad de Santiago de Compostela; EspañaFil: González Perez, Antonio. Centro Andaluz de Estudios Bioinformáticos; EspañaFil: Calero, Miguel. Instituto de Salud Carlos Iii (isciii); España. Fundación Reina Sofia; EspañaFil: Franco Macías, Emilio. Universidad de Sevilla; EspañaFil: Macías, Juan. Hospital Universitario de Valme; EspañaFil: Blesa, Rafael. Instituto de Salud Carlos Iii (isciii); España. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; EspañaFil: Cervera Carles, Laura. Instituto de Salud Carlos Iii (isciii); España. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; EspañaFil: Menéndez González, Manuel. Universidad de Oviedo; EspañaFil: Frank García, Ana. Instituto de Salud Carlos Iii (isciii); España. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; España. Instituto de Investigacion del Hospital de la Paz.; España. Hospital Universitario La Paz; EspañaFil: Royo, Jose Luís. Universidad de Málaga; EspañaFil: Moreno, Fermin. Instituto de Salud Carlos Iii (isciii); España. Hospital Universitario Donostia; España. Instituto Biodonostia; EspañaFil: Huerto Vilas, Raquel. Hospital Universitari Santa Maria de Lleida; España. Institut de Recerca Biomedica de Lleida; EspañaFil: Baquero, Miquel. Hospital Universitari i Politècnic La Fe; Españ

Plasma extracellular vesicles reveal early molecular differences in amyloid positive patients with early-onset mild cognitive impairment

In the clinical course of Alzheimer's disease (AD) development, the dementia phase is commonly preceded by a prodromal AD phase, which is mainly characterized by reaching the highest levels of Aβ and p-tau-mediated neuronal injury and a mild cognitive impairment (MCI) clinical status. Because of that, most AD cases are diagnosed when neuronal damage is already established and irreversible. Therefore, a differential diagnosis of MCI causes in these prodromal stages is one of the greatest challenges for clinicians. Blood biomarkers are emerging as desirable tools for pre-screening purposes, but the current results are still being analyzed and much more data is needed to be implemented in clinical practice. Because of that, plasma extracellular vesicles (pEVs) are gaining popularity as a new source of biomarkers for the early stages of AD development. To identify an exosome proteomics signature linked to prodromal AD, we performed a cross-sectional study in a cohort of early-onset MCI (EOMCI) patients in which 184 biomarkers were measured in pEVs, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and plasma samples using multiplex PEA technology of Olink© proteomics. The obtained results showed that proteins measured in pEVs from EOMCI patients with established amyloidosis correlated with CSF p-tau181 levels, brain ventricle volume changes, brain hyperintensities, and MMSE scores. In addition, the correlations of pEVs proteins with different parameters distinguished between EOMCI Aβ( +) and Aβ(-) patients, whereas the CSF or plasma proteome did not. In conclusion, our findings suggest that pEVs may be able to provide information regarding the initial amyloidotic changes of AD. Circulating exosomes may acquire a pathological protein signature of AD before raw plasma, becoming potential biomarkers for identifying subjects at the earliest stages of AD development

Neuropsychiatric profiles and conversion to dementia in mild cognitive impairment, a latent class analysis

Altres ajuts: Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER)Altres ajuts: Generalitat de Catalunya. Programa CERCAAltres ajuts: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CIBERSAM i CIBERNED)Altres ajuts: Fundació "La Caixa"Altres ajuts: Grífols SA (GR@ACE project)Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) have been recently addressed as risk factors of conversion to Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other dementia types in patients diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Our aim was to determine profiles based on the prominent NPS in MCI patients and to explore the predictive value of these profiles on conversion to specific types of dementia. A total of 2137 MCI patients monitored in a memory clinic were included in the study. Four NPS profiles emerged (classes), which were defined by preeminent symptoms: Irritability, Apathy, Anxiety/Depression and Asymptomatic. Irritability and Apathy were predictors of conversion to dementia (HR = 1.43 and 1.56, respectively). Anxiety/depression class showed no risk effect of conversion when compared to Asymptomatic class. Irritability class appeared as the most discriminant neuropsychiatric condition to identify non-AD converters (i.e., frontotemporal dementia, vascular dementia, Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy Bodies). The findings revealed that consistent subgroups of MCI patients could be identified among comorbid basal NPS. The preeminent NPS showed to behave differentially on conversion to dementia, beyond AD. Therefore, NPS should be used as early diagnosis facilitators, and should also guide clinicians to detect patients with different illness trajectories in the progression of MCI

Common variants in Alzheimer’s disease and risk stratification by polygenic risk scores

Genetic discoveries of Alzheimer’s disease are the drivers of our understanding, and together with polygenetic risk stratification can contribute towards planning of feasible and efficient preventive and curative clinical trials. We first perform a large genetic association study by merging all available case-control datasets and by-proxy study results (discovery n = 409,435 and validation size n = 58,190). Here, we add six variants associated with Alzheimer’s disease risk (near APP, CHRNE, PRKD3/NDUFAF7, PLCG2 and two exonic variants in the SHARPIN gene). Assessment of the polygenic risk score and stratifying by APOE reveal a 4 to 5.5 years difference in median age at onset of Alzheimer’s disease patients in APOE ɛ4 carriers. Because of this study, the underlying mechanisms of APP can be studied to refine the amyloid cascade and the polygenic risk score provides a tool to select individuals at high risk of Alzheimer’s disease.Additional co-authors: Joshua C. Bis, Rebecca Sims, Céline Bellenguez, Inés Quintela, Antonio González-Perez, Miguel Calero, Emilio Franco-Macías, Juan Macías, Rafael Blesa, Laura Cervera-Carles, Manuel Menéndez-González, Ana Frank-García, Jose Luís Royo, Fermin Moreno, Raquel Huerto Vilas, Miquel Baquero, Mónica Diez-Fairen, Carmen Lage, Sebastián García-Madrona, Pablo García-González, Emilio Alarcón-Martín, Sergi Valero, Oscar Sotolongo-Grau, Abbe Ullgren, Adam C. Naj, Afina W. Lemstra, Alba Benaque, Alba Pérez-Cordón, Alberto Benussi, Alberto Rábano, Alessandro Padovani, Alessio Squassina, Alexandre de Mendonça, Alfonso Arias Pastor, Almar A. L. Kok, Alun Meggy, Ana Belén Pastor, Ana Espinosa, Anaïs Corma-Gómez, Angel Martín Montes, Ángela Sanabria, Anita L. DeStefano, Anja Schneider, Annakaisa Haapasalo, Anne Kinhult Ståhlbom, Anne Tybjærg-Hansen, Annette M. Hartmann, Annika Spottke, Arturo Corbatón-Anchuelo, Arvid Rongve, Barbara Borroni, Beatrice Arosio, Benedetta Nacmias, Børge G. Nordestgaard, Brian W. Kunkle, Camille Charbonnier, Carla Abdelnour, Carlo Masullo, Carmen Martínez Rodríguez, Carmen Muñoz-Fernandez, Carole Dufouil, Caroline Graff, Catarina B. Ferreira, Caterina Chillotti, Chandra A. Reynolds, Chiara Fenoglio, Christine Van Broeckhoven, Christopher Clark, Claudia Pisanu, Claudia L. Satizabal, Clive Holmes, Dolores Buiza-Rueda, Dag Aarsland, Dan Rujescu, Daniel Alcolea, Daniela Galimberti, David Wallon, Davide Seripa, Edna Grünblatt, Efthimios Dardiotis, Emrah Düzel, Elio Scarpini, Elisa Conti, Elisa Rubino, Ellen Gelpi, Eloy Rodriguez-Rodriguez, Emmanuelle Duron, Eric Boerwinkle, Evelyn Ferri, Fabrizio Tagliavini, Fahri Küçükali, Florence Pasquier, Florentino Sanchez-Garcia, Francesca Mangialasche, Frank Jessen, Gaël Nicolas, Geir Selbæk, Gemma Ortega, Geneviève Chêne, Georgios Hadjigeorgiou, Giacomina Rossi, Gianfranco Spalletta, Giorgio Giaccone, Giulia Grande, Giuliano Binetti, Goran Papenberg, Harald Hampel, Henri Bailly, Henrik Zetterberg, Hilkka Soininen, Ida K. Karlsson, Ignacio Alvarez, Ildebrando Appollonio, Ina Giegling, Ingmar Skoog, Ingvild Saltvedt, Innocenzo Rainero, Irene Rosas Allende, Jakub Hort, Janine Diehl-Schmid, Jasper Van Dongen, Jean-Sebastien Vidal, Jenni Lehtisalo, Jens Wiltfang, Jesper Qvist Thomassen, Johannes Kornhuber, Jonathan L. Haines, Jonathan Vogelgsang, Juan A. Pineda, Juan Fortea, Julius Popp, Jürgen Deckert, Katharina Buerger, Kevin Morgan, Klaus Fließbach, Kristel Sleegers, Laura Molina-Porcel, Lena Kilander, Leonie Weinhold, Lindsay A. Farrer, Li-San Wang, Luca Kleineidam, Lucia Farotti, Lucilla Parnetti, Lucio Tremolizzo, Lucrezia Hausner, Luisa Benussi, Lutz Froelich, M. Arfan Ikram, M. Candida Deniz-Naranjo, Magda Tsolaki, Maitée Rosende-Roca, Malin Löwenmark, Marc Hulsman, Marco Spallazzi, Margaret A. Pericak-Vance, Margaret Esiri, María Bernal Sánchez-Arjona, Maria Carolina Dalmasso, María Teresa Martínez-Larrad, Marina Arcaro, Markus M. Nöthen, Marta Fernández-Fuertes, Martin Dichgans, Martin Ingelsson, Martin J. Herrmann, Martin Scherer, Martin Vyhnalek, Mary H. Kosmidis, Mary Yannakoulia, Matthias Schmid, Michael Ewers, Michael T. Heneka, Michael Wagner, Michela Scamosci, Miia Kivipelto, Mikko Hiltunen, Miren Zulaica, Montserrat Alegret, Myriam Fornage, Natalia Roberto, Natasja M. van Schoor, Nazib M. Seidu, Nerisa Banaj, Nicola J. Armstrong, Nikolaos Scarmeas, Norbert Scherbaum, Oliver Goldhardt, Oliver Hanon, Oliver Peters, Olivia Anna Skrobot, Olivier Quenez, Ondrej Lerch, Paola Bossù, Paolo Caffarra, Paolo Dionigi Rossi, Paraskevi Sakka, Per Hoffmann, Peter A. Holmans, Peter Fischer, Peter Riederer, Qiong Yang, Rachel Marshall, Rajesh N. Kalaria, Richard Mayeux, Rik Vandenberghe, Roberta Cecchetti, Roberta Ghidoni, Ruth Frikke-Schmidt, Sandro Sorbi, Sara Hägg, Sebastiaan Engelborghs, Seppo Helisalmi, Sigrid Botne Sando, Silke Kern, Silvana Archetti, Silvia Boschi, Silvia Fostinelli, Silvia Gil, Silvia Mendoza, Simon Mead, Simona Ciccone, Srdjan Djurovic, Stefanie Heilmann-Heimbach, Steffi Riedel-Heller, Teemu Kuulasmaa, Teodoro del Ser, Thibaud Lebouvier, Thomas Polak, Tiia Ngandu, Timo Grimmer, Valentina Bessi, Valentina Escott-Price, Vilmantas Giedraitis, Vincent Deramecourt, Wolfgang Maier, Xueqiu Jian, Yolande A. L. Pijnenburg, EADB contributors, The GR@ACE study group, DEGESCO consortium, IGAP (ADGC, CHARGE, EADI, GERAD), PGC-ALZ consortia, Patrick Gavin Kehoe, Guillermo Garcia-Ribas, Pascual Sánchez-Juan, Pau Pastor, Jordi Pérez-Tur, Gerard Piñol-Ripoll, Adolfo Lopez de Munain, Jose María García-Alberca, María J. Bullido, Victoria Álvarez, Alberto Lleó, Luis M. Real, Pablo Mir, Miguel Medina, Philip Scheltens, Henne Holstege, Marta Marquié, María Eugenia Sáez, Ángel Carracedo, Philippe Amouyel, Gerard D. Schellenberg, Julie Williams, Sudha Seshadri, Cornelia M. van Duijn, Karen A. Mather, Raquel Sánchez-Valle, Manuel Serrano-Ríos, Adelina Orellana, Lluís Tárraga, Kaj Blennow, Martijn Huisman, Ole A. Andreassen, Danielle Posthuma, Jordi Clarimón, Mercè Boada, Wiesje M. van der Flier, Alfredo Ramirez, Jean-Charles Lambert, Sven J. van der Lee & Agustín Rui

The MAPT H1 Haplotype Is a Risk Factor for Alzheimer's Disease in APOE E4 Non-carriers

An ancestral inversion of 900 kb on chromosome 17q21, which includes the microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT) gene, defines two haplotype clades in Caucasians (H1 and H2). The H1 haplotype has been linked inconsistently with AD. In a previous study, we showed that an SNP tagging this haplotype (rs1800547) was associated with AD risk in a large population from the Dementia Genetics Spanish Consortium (DEGESCO) including 4435 cases and 6147 controls. The association was mainly driven by individuals that were non-carriers of the APOE ?4 allele. Our aim was to replicate our previous findings in an independent sample of 4124 AD cases and 3290 controls from Spain (GR@ACE project) and to analyze the effect of the H1 sub-haplotype structure on the risk of AD. The H1 haplotype was associated with AD risk (OR = 1.12; p = 0.0025). Stratification analysis showed that this association was mainly driven by the APOE ?4 non-carriers (OR = 1.15; p = 0.0022). Pooled analysis of both Spanish datasets (n = 17,996) showed that the highest AD risk related to the MAPT H1/H2 haplotype was in those individuals that were the oldest [third tertile (>77 years)] and did not carry APOE ?4 allele (p = 0.001). We did not find a significant association between H1 sub-haplotypes and AD. H1c was nominally associated but lost statistical significance after adjusting by population sub-structure. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that genetic variants linked to the MAPT H1/H2 are tracking a genuine risk allele for AD. The fact that this association is stronger in APOE ?4 non-carriers partially explains previous controversial results and might be related to a slower alternative causal pathway less dependent on brain amyloid load.ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: The Genome Research at Fundacio ACE/Dementia Genetics Spanish Consortium (GR@ACE/DEGESCO) would like to thank patients and controls who participated in this project. GR@ACE/DEGESCO GWAS program was funded by Grifols SA, Fundacion Bancaria “La Caixa,” and Fundació ACE, Institut Català de Neurociències Aplicades. PS-J and AR have also received support by grant PI16/01861. Accion Estrategica en Salud integrated in the Spanish National ICDCi Plan and financed by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) – Subdireccion General de Evaluacion and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER – “Una Manera de Hacer Europa”). PS-J was supported by IDIVAL, Instituto de Salud Carlos III [Fondo de Investigacion Sanitario, PI08/0139, PI12/02288, PI16/01652, JPND (DEMTEST PI11/03028)], and the CIBERNED program. We thank Biobanco Valdecilla for their support. LM was supported by Consejería de Salud de la Junta de Andalucía (Grant PI-0001/2017). DEGESCO was also sponsored by the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED, Spain). Control samples and data from patients included in this study were provided in part by the National DNA Bank Carlos III (www.bancoadn.org, University of Salamanca, Spain) and Hospital Universitario Virgen de Valme (Sevilla, Spain) and they were processed following standard operating procedures with the appropriate approval of the Ethical and Scientific Committee. The genotyping service to generate GR@ACE/DEGESCO GWAS data was carried out at CEGEN-PRB3-ISCIII; it was supported by grant PT17/0019, of the PE ICDCi 2013–2016, funded by ISCIII and ERDF. GR@ACE/DEGESCO consortia would also like to thank to all researchers contributing to this project

Long runs of homozygosity are associated with Alzheimer's disease

Altres ajuts: The Genome Research at Fundació ACE project (GR@ACE) is supported by Fundación bancaria "La Caixa," Grifols SA and Fundació ACE. L.M.R. is supported by Consejería de Salud de la Junta de Andalucía (Grant PI-0001/2017).Long runs of homozygosity (ROH) are contiguous stretches of homozygous genotypes, which are a footprint of inbreeding and recessive inheritance. The presence of recessive loci is suggested for Alzheimer's disease (AD); however, their search has been poorly assessed to date. To investigate homozygosity in AD, here we performed a fine-scale ROH analysis using 10 independent cohorts of European ancestry (11,919 AD cases and 9181 controls.) We detected an increase of homozygosity in AD cases compared to controls [ β (CI 95%) = 0.070 (0.037-0.104); P = 3.91 × 10 −5 ; β (CI95%) = 0.043 (0.009-0.076); P = 0.013]. ROHs increasing the risk of AD (OR > 1) were significantly overrepresented compared to ROHs increasing protection (p < 2.20 × 10 −16). A significant ROH association with AD risk was detected upstream the HS3ST1 locus (chr4:11,189,482‒11,305,456), (β (CI 95%) = 1.09 (0.48 ‒ 1.48), p value = 9.03 × 10 −4), previously related to AD. Next, to search for recessive candidate variants in ROHs, we constructed a homozygosity map of inbred AD cases extracted from an outbred population and explored ROH regions in whole-exome sequencing data (N = 1449). We detected a candidate marker, rs117458494, mapped in the SPON1 locus, which has been previously associated with amyloid metabolism. Here, we provide a research framework to look for recessive variants in AD using outbred populations. Our results showed that AD cases have enriched homozygosity, suggesting that recessive effects may explain a proportion of AD heritability

Mendelian Randomisation Confirms the Role of Y-Chromosome Loss in Alzheimer’s Disease Aetiopathogenesis in Men

Mosaic loss of chromosome Y (mLOY) is a common ageing-related somatic event and has been previously associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, mLOY estimation from genotype microarray data only reflects the mLOY degree of subjects at the moment of DNA sampling. Therefore, mLOY phenotype associations with AD can be severely age-confounded in the context of genome-wide association studies. Here, we applied Mendelian randomisation to construct an age-independent mLOY polygenic risk score (mloy-PRS) using 114 autosomal variants. The mloy-PRS instrument was associated with an 80% increase in mLOY risk per standard deviation unit (p = 4.22 × 10−20) and was orthogonal with age. We found that a higher genetic risk for mLOY was associated with faster progression to AD in men with mild cognitive impairment (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.23, p = 0.01). Importantly, mloy-PRS had no effect on AD conversion or risk in the female group, suggesting that these associations are caused by the inherent loss of the Y chromosome. Additionally, the blood mLOY phenotype in men was associated with increased cerebrospinal fluid levels of total tau and phosphorylated tau181 in subjects with mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Our results strongly suggest that mLOY is involved in AD pathogenesis.P.G.-G. (Pablo García-González) is supported by CIBERNED employment plan CNV-304-PRF-866. CIBERNED is integrated into ISCIII (Instituto de Salud Carlos III). I.d.R is supported by a national grant from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III FI20/00215. A.C. (Amanda Cano) acknowledges the support of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities under the grant Juan de la Cierva (FJC2018-036012-I). M.B. (Mercé Boada) and A.R. (Agustín Ruiz) are also supported by national grants PI13/02434, PI16/01861, PI17/01474, PI19/01240, and PI19/01301. The Genome Research @ Fundació ACE project (GR@ACE) is supported by Grifols SA, Fundación bancaria “La Caixa”, Fundació ACE, and CIBERNED. Acción Estratégica en Salud is integrated into the Spanish National R + D + I Plan and funded by ISCIII (Instituto de Salud Carlos III)—Subdirección General de Evaluación—and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER—“Una manera de hacer Europa”). Genotyping of the ACE MCI-EADB samples was performed in the context of EADB (European Alzheimer DNA biobank) funded by the JPco-fuND FP-829-029 (ZonMW project number 733051061). This work was supported by a grant (European Alzheimer DNA BioBank, EADB) from the EU Joint Program—Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND). Partial funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málag

Genomic Characterization of Host Factors Related to SARS-CoV-2 Infection in People with Dementia and Control Populations: The GR@ACE/DEGESCO Study

Emerging studies have suggested several chromosomal regions as potential host genetic factors involved in the susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection and disease outcome. We nested a COVID-19 genome-wide association study using the GR@ACE/DEGESCO study, searching for susceptibility factors associated with COVID-19 disease. To this end, we compared 221 COVID-19 confirmed cases with 17,035 individuals in whom the COVID-19 disease status was unknown. Then, we performed a meta-analysis with the publicly available data from the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative. Because the APOE locus has been suggested as a potential modifier of COVID-19 disease, we added sensitivity analyses stratifying by dementia status or by disease severity. We confirmed the existence of the 3p21.31 region (LZTFL1, SLC6A20) implicated in the susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection and TYK2 gene might be involved in COVID-19 severity. Nevertheless, no statistically significant association was observed in the COVID-19 fatal outcome or in the stratified analyses (dementia-only and non-dementia strata) for the APOE locus not supporting its involvement in SARS-CoV-2 pathobiology or COVID-19 prognosis