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A biochemical mechanism for greater susceptibility of African americans to severe COVID: higher mean levels of IL-6 than Caucasians or Japanese controlling for BMI.
( 1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3039107/#!po=14.6259 )
IL-6 is cytokine associated with severe cases of COVID.
( https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/03/03/2020.02.29.20029520.full.pdf )
( 1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3039107/#!po=14.6259 )
IL-6 is cytokine associated with severe cases of COVID.
( https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/03/03/2020.02.29.20029520.full.pdf )
IL-6 blockers have been recommended for COVID treatment (albeit not approved); possibly could be particularly beneficial for African American patients. https://www.cancernetwork.com/news/anti-il-6-agents-suggested-sitc-treat-patients-covid-19
African Americans’ baseline IL6 levels from the 2012 population study were over twice those of Japanese and 75% higher than Caucasian Americans. Severe COVID patients had 10X higher IL6 than healthy.
Some evidence for a genetic/ancestry based explanation of these differences in IL-6 and IL-6 soluble receptor levels.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1852718/#__ffn_sectitle
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1852718/#__ffn_sectitle
Example allele frequency for the IL-6 soluble receptor by population from 1000 genomes project (h/t @razibkhan )
http://useast.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Variation/Population?db=core;r=1:154453994-154454994;v=rs8192284;vdb=variation;vf=1442157#population_freq_SAS
http://useast.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Variation/Population?db=core;r=1:154453994-154454994;v=rs8192284;vdb=variation;vf=1442157#population_freq_SAS
More evidence from American patients that IL-6 levels and peak predict disease severity
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.01.20047381v1
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.01.20047381v1
Milwaukee numbers
British data comparing COVID patients in critical care to patients with viral pneumonia from 2017-2018. Black patients over five times more prevalent with COVID.
Illinois confirmed cases and deaths- both disproportionately black but deaths more so
More Chinese data on the role of IL-6 in severe cases https://mobile.twitter.com/LucyWalkerlab/status/1246929372239605761
German data suggests baseline IL-6 also associated with severity https://mobile.twitter.com/LucyWalkerlab/status/1246929368288501761
Louisiana has the highest deaths per capita after New York https://twitter.com/lizzkatherine_/status/1247291781978431489
