Citation

Adams CD, Tielbeek JJ, Boutwell BB. Transl. Psychiatr. 2022; 12(1): 193.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1038/s41398-022-01948-4

PMID

35538069

Abstract

Little is known about the genetics of norm violation and aggression in relation to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). To investigate this, we used summary statistics from genome-wide association studies and linkage disequilibrium score regression to calculate a matrix of genetic correlations (r(gs)) for antisocial behavior (ASB), COVID-19, and various health and behavioral traits. After false-discovery rate correction, ASB was genetically correlated with COVID-19 (r(g) = 0.51; P = 1.54E-02) and 19 other traits. ASB and COVID-19 were both positively genetically correlated with having a noisy workplace, doing heavy manual labor, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and genitourinary diseases. ASB and COVID-19 were both inversely genetically correlated with average income, education years, healthspan, verbal reasoning, lifespan, cheese intake, and being breastfed as a baby. But keep in mind that r(gs) are not necessarily causal. And, if causal, their prevailing directions of effect (which causes which) are indiscernible from r(gs) alone. Moreover, the SNP-heritability ([Formula: see text]) estimates for two measures of COVID-19 were very small, restricting the overlap of genetic variance in absolute terms between ASB and COVID-19. Nonetheless, our findings suggest that those with antisocial tendencies possibly have a higher risk of exposure to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) than those without antisocial tendencies. This may have been especially true early in the pandemic before vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 were available and before the emergence of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

Language: en