Interplay between the Genetics of Personality Traits, severe Psychiatric Disorders, and COVID-19 Host Genetics in the Susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 Infection

  1. Urs Heilbronner
  2. Fabian Streit
  3. Thomas Vogl
  4. Fanny Senner
  5. Sabrina K. Schaupp
  6. Daniela Reich-Erkelenz
  7. Sergi Papiol
  8. Mojtaba Oraki Kohshour
  9. Farahnaz Klöhn-Saghatolislam
  10. Janos L. Kalman
  11. Maria Heilbronner
  12. Katrin Gade
  13. Ashley L. Comes
  14. Monika Budde
  15. Till F. M. Andlauer
  16. Heike Anderson-Schmidt
  17. Kristina Adorjan
  18. Til Stürmer
  19. Adrian Loerbroks
  20. Manfred Amelang
  21. Eric Poisel
  22. Jerome Foo
  23. Stefanie Heilmann-Heimbach
  24. Andreas J. Forstner
  25. Franziska Degenhardt
  26. Jörg Zimmermann
  27. Jens Wiltfang
  28. Martin von Hagen
  29. Carsten Spitzer
  30. Max Schmauss
  31. Eva Reininghaus
  32. Jens Reimer
  33. Carsten Konrad
  34. Georg Juckel
  35. Fabian U. Lang
  36. Markus Jäger
  37. Christian Figge
  38. Andreas J. Fallgatter
  39. Detlef E. Dietrich
  40. Udo Dannlowski
  41. Bernhardt T. Baune
  42. Volker Arolt
  43. Ion-George Anghelescu
  44. Markus M. Nöthen
  45. Stephanie H. Witt
  46. Ole A. Andreassen
  47. Chi-Hua Chen
  48. Peter Falkai
  49. Marcella Rietschel
  50. Thomas G. Schulze
  51. Eva C. Schulte
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Abstract

Background

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, with all its impacts 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 behavior 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.

Methods

Linkage disequilibrium score regression was used to explore the genetic correlations of 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 (n=1346) and the HeiDE (n=3266) study), polygenic risk scores were used to analyze 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 (p=1.47×10-5; rg=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.

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