"We found a significantly lower frequency of CCR5-Δ32 among the COVID-19 patients (0.10 vs 0.18 in controls; p=0.002, OR=0.48, 95%CI=0.29-0.76). The difference was mainly due to the reduced frequency of CCR5-Δ32 carriers in the severe, significantly lower than in the non-severe patients (p=0.036). Of note, we did not find deletion-homozygotes among the patients compared to 1% among controls. We also confirmed the association between a LZTFL1 variant and COVID-19. Our study points to CCR5 as a promising target for treatment of COVID-19 , but requires validation in additional large cohorts. In confirmed by others, the genetic analysis of CCR5-variants (such as Δ32) might help to identify patients with a higher susceptibility to severe COVID-19.

Apologies if this has been posted before.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020....20224659v1