While COVID has been long known to be more dangerous in men than women, research which is still in its early stages shows that some of this increased risk could be from having a gene for male balding.
A team of researchers in the US first suspected the link when they noticed that men with a common form of hormone-sensitive hair loss, known as androgenetic alopecia, were also more likely to be hospitalised with COVID. They presented their findings May 6 at the virtual spring meeting of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV).
“Among hospitalized men with COVID-19, 79% presented with androgenetic alopecia compared to 31%-53% that would be expected in a similar aged match population,” said researchers led by Dr Andy Goren, chief medical officer at Applied Biology Inc in California.
The researchers noted that androgenetic alopecia is due to the activity of the androgen receptor (AR) gene, which can lead to balding in some men. An enzyme called TMPRSS2, key to COVID infection, is also androgen-sensitive, and might be affected by the AR gene as well, explained Dr Goren’s group.
One key segment on the AR gene seems to affect both COVID severity and male balding.
In the new study, the Irvine group enrolled 65 men hospitalised with COVID, and conducted a genetic analysis on them. The results showed that participants with certain structural differences in the AR gene were at greater risk of developing severe COVID. Speaking in a meeting press release, Goren said the AR gene anomaly “could be used as a biomarker to help identify male COVID-19 patients most at risk for ICU admissions.”
He added that he believes that “the identification of a biomarker connected with the androgen receptor is another piece of evidence highlighting the important role of androgens [male hormones] in COVID-19 disease severity.”
Dr Teresa Murray Amato has seen many severe cases of COVID. She is chair of emergency medicine at Long Island Jewish Forest Hills in New York City. Though not connected to the new research, but said it “did show a significant correlation between a higher number of androgen receptors and a higher incidence of ICU admissions for patients infected with COVID-19.”
Dr Amato added that, “While the study is small and the exact association is not completely understood, it may show at least one answer to why men were more likely to be admitted to ICU and have overall higher morality with COVID-19 infections.”
According to Amato, further investigations are necessary to determine whether “medications that block androgen receptors will be useful in treating a subset of [COVID-19] patients.”
Since the findings were presented at a medical meeting, they should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Source: Medical Xpress
