Severe COVID-19 more likely in those with dementia alleles
UK Biobank study shows homozygous carriers have more than twice the risk of other common genotypes
Homozygosity for the apolipoprotein E ε4 (ApoE ε4) genotype appears to be associated with a higher rate of COVID-19, a study shows.
UK and US researchers evaluated the association between ApoE ε4 alleles and severe COVID-19, with testing largely restricted to UK hospital inpatients with clinical signs of severe infection.
Pre-existing dementia had already been shown to be a risk factor for severe COVID-19, the researchers said.
Being homozygous for ApoE ε4 is known to be associated with a 14-fold increase in risk for Alzheimer’s disease (compared with being homozygous for the more common ApoE ε3 genotype), so the researchers wanted to investigate the effect of ε4 homozygosity on risk for severe COVID-19.
