A blood test in Germany in 2013. – Caro / Dittrich / SIPA – 1812051612
- On March 16, Chinese researchers published a study in which they explain that people belonging to group O have a “significantly lower” risk of being infected with Covid-19.
- This study has not yet been peer reviewed. Other work will have to be done to confirm these results, warn experts interviewed by 20 minutes.
- Studies on SARS, which had raged in 2003 and 2004, had already looked at blood groups.
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A path for understanding the Covid-19? On March 16, a team of researchers
Chinese published a study on the relationships between
ABO blood groups and the possibility of being infected with the new coronavirus.
The team concludes that people in group A have a “significantly higher” risk of being infected with this coronavirus than people in other groups. People in group O have a “significantly lower” risk of infection compared to other groups. The researchers studied patients from three hospitals. In the largest group, made up of 1,175 patients, there were more group A patients (37.75%) compared to the numbers of group A people in Wuhan (32.16%). Conversely, group O patients were less numerous (25.8%) compared to the group O population in Wuhan (33.84%).
“Essential to do other studies”
These results, however, need to be taken with great hindsight: they have not yet been peer-reviewed and peer-reviewed, an essential process for validating a study. “It’s science on the move, you have to be careful, reminds 20 minutes Jacques Le Pendu, researcher at the University of Nantes, whose work deals with antigens of tissue blood groups. This is a first study and it is essential to do more, with other authors, in order to confirm or deny it. Whatever your blood type, it is therefore always important to continue to respect the gestures that protect against contamination: wash your hands regularly, stay away from sick people …
Why did Chinese researchers study blood groups? These can have interactions with certain infectious diseases, recalls Professor Jacques Chiaroni, director of the EFS Paca-Corse, whose work deals with blood groups: “Group O is less sensitive to severe forms of malaria, but more sensitive to cholera or norovirus. There is no blood group that protects from everything. “
Antibodies that would prevent the virus from entering the cell
Research carried out on Sras-CoV, which had raged during the epidemic in 2003 and 2004 in Asia and caused nearly 800 deaths, had already suggested a susceptibility according to the ABO blood type. “A published study had shown that group O subjects were less likely to be infected,” recalls Jacques Chiaroni. One of the elements that could explain this observation could be linked to a reduction in the adhesion of the virus to its receptor. This reduction would be due to the presence of the anti-A antibody, naturally present in the blood of group O subjects and absent in group A subjects. ”
Published in 2008 in the journal Glycobiology, a study in which Jacques Le Pendu participated, was made to understand this mechanism. How does the virus work? “This would carry the antigens of the blood group of the person he infected,” says the scientist. Anti-blood group antibodies can block interactions between the virus spicule protein and its receptor in the cell. This would explain why group O is less likely to be infected with SARS. In fact, people in group O make anti-A antibodies, thus preventing the virus from entering cells.
Why do subjects O have this antibody when subjects of group A do not have it? “ABO blood groups are molecules (antigens) that are carried by red blood cells and other tissues,” explains Jacques Chiaroni. These antigens are not unique to humans. They are present in the environment and in particular on the bacteria of our intestinal microbiota. This contact with these antigens will raise antibodies against the antigens that we do not have. Thus, by way of example, the subject of group A, who does not have the antigen B, will manufacture anti-B antibodies, while a subject of group O, who has neither antigen A nor antigen B, will manufacture anti-A and anti-B antibodies. Although one should be very careful about any conclusion, it would be these group O subject anti-A antibodies (which are absent in group A subject) that could reduce the penetration of the virus. »A track to explore.
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