Alternative splicing of OAS1 alters the risk for severe COVID-19

Jennifer E. Huffman; Guillaume Butler‐Laporte; Atlas Khan; Erola Pairo‐Castineira; Theodore G. Drivas; Gina Marie Peloso; Tomoko Nakanishi; COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative; Andrea Ganna; Anurag Verma; John Kenneth Baillie; Krzysztof Kiryluk; John Brent Richards; Hugo Zeberg

doi:10.1038/s41588-021-00996-8

Genetic & Genomic MedicineNature GeneticsJan 13, 2022

Peer-reviewed journal article

Alternative splicing of OAS1 alters the risk for severe COVID-19

Jennifer E. Huffman iD, Guillaume Butler‐Laporte iD, Atlas Khan iD, Erola Pairo‐Castineira iD, Theodore G. Drivas iD, Gina Marie Peloso iD, Tomoko Nakanishi iD, COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative, Andrea Ganna iD, Anurag Verma iD, John Kenneth Baillie iD, Krzysztof Kiryluk iD, John Brent Richards iD, Hugo Zeberg iD

Abstract

A locus containing OAS1/2/3 has been identified as a risk locus for severe COVID-19 among Europeans ancestry individuals, with a protective haplotype of [~]75 kilobases derived from Neanderthals. Here, we show that among several potentially causal variants at this locus, a splice variant of OAS1 occurs in people of African ancestry independently of the Neanderthal haplotype and confers protection against COVID-19 of a magnitude similar to that seen in individuals without African ancestry.

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