WEDNESDAY, March 3, 2021 (HealthDay News) – A new study provides additional evidence that people with certain blood types may be more likely to contract COVID-19.
Specifically, he found that the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is particularly attracted to the blood group A antigen found in respiratory cells.
The researchers focused on a protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus called the receptor-binding domain (RBD), which is the part of the virus that binds to host cells. This makes it an important target for scientists who are trying to learn how the virus infects people.
In this laboratory study, the team assessed how SARS-CoV-2 RBD interacted with red and respiratory blood cells in blood types A, B and O.
The results showed that SARS-CoV-2 RBD had a strong preference for binding to blood group A found in respiratory cells, but had no preference for group A red blood cells, or other blood groups found in respiratory or red cells.
RBD SARS-CoV-2’s preference to recognize and bind to blood type A antigen found in the lungs of people with blood type A may provide information on the potential link between blood group A and COVID-19 infection, according to with the authors of the study. It was published on March 3 in the magazine. Blood advances.
“It is interesting that viral RBD actually prefers only the type of blood group A antigens that are in the respiratory cells, which are presumably how the virus is entering most patients and infecting them,” said the study’s author, Dr. Sean Stowell of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
“Blood type is a challenge because it is inherited and not something that we can change,” said Stowell in a press release. “But if we can better understand how the virus interacts with blood groups in people, we can find new drugs or methods of prevention.”
These findings alone cannot fully describe or predict how coronaviruses would affect patients of various blood types, the researchers noted.
“Our observation is not the only mechanism responsible for what we are seeing clinically, but it may explain part of the blood type’s influence on COVID-19 infection,” said Stowell and his team.
More information
The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention has more information about COVID-19.
SOURCE: Blood advances, press release, March 3, 2021