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Interplay between the genetics of personality traits, severe psychiatric disorders and COVID-19 host genetics in the susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

BJPsych open

Authors: Urs Heilbronner, Fabian Streit, Thomas Vogl, Fanny Senner, Sabrina K Schaupp, Daniela Reich-Erkelenz, Sergi Papiol, Mojtaba Oraki Kohshour, Farahnaz Klöhn-Saghatolislam, Janos L Kalman, Maria Heilbronner, Katrin Gade, Ashley L Comes, Monika Budde, Till F M Andlauer, Heike Anderson-Schmidt, Kristina Adorjan, Til Stürmer, Adrian Loerbroks, Manfred Amelang, Eric Poisel, Jerome Foo, Stefanie Heilmann-Heimbach, Andreas J Forstner, Franziska Degenhardt, Jörg Zimmermann, Jens Wiltfang, Martin von Hagen, Carsten Spitzer, Max Schmauss, Eva Reininghaus, Jens Reimer, Carsten Konrad, Georg Juckel, Fabian U Lang, Markus Jäger, Christian Figge, Andreas J Fallgatter, Detlef E Dietrich, Udo Dannlowski, Bernhardt T Baune, Volker Arolt, Ion-George Anghelescu, Markus M Nöthen, Stephanie H Witt, Ole A Andreassen, Chi-Hua Chen, Peter Falkai, Marcella Rietschel, Thomas G Schulze, Eva C Schulte

BACKGROUND: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, with its impact on our way of life, is affecting our experiences and mental health. Notably, individuals with mental disorders have been reported to have a higher risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2. Personality traits could represent an important determinant of preventative health behaviour and, therefore, the risk of contracting the virus.

AIMS: We examined overlapping genetic underpinnings between major psychiatric disorders, personality traits and susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

METHOD: Linkage disequilibrium score regression was used to explore the genetic correlations of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) susceptibility with psychiatric disorders and personality traits based on data from the largest available respective genome-wide association studies (GWAS). In two cohorts (the PsyCourse ( = 1346) and the HeiDE ( = 3266) study), polygenic risk scores were used to analyse if a genetic association between, psychiatric disorders, personality traits and COVID-19 susceptibility exists in individual-level data.

RESULTS: We observed no significant genetic correlations of COVID-19 susceptibility with psychiatric disorders. For personality traits, there was a significant genetic correlation for COVID-19 susceptibility with extraversion ( = 1.47 × 10; genetic correlation 0.284). Yet, this was not reflected in individual-level data from the PsyCourse and HeiDE studies.

CONCLUSIONS: We identified no significant correlation between genetic risk factors for severe psychiatric disorders and genetic risk for COVID-19 susceptibility. Among the personality traits, extraversion showed evidence for a positive genetic association with COVID-19 susceptibility, in one but not in another setting. Overall, these findings highlight a complex contribution of genetic and non-genetic components in the interaction between COVID-19 susceptibility and personality traits or mental disorders.

© The Author(s) 2021.

PMID: 34659794

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