Development of the Multiplex Genotyping Method of Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms of Genes Associated with the Severity of COVID-19

Abstract— COVID-19 is a severe acute respiratory infection caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Research in the field of host genetics contributes to the discovery of new genomic markers of coronavirus infection progression. In this article, a method for multiplex genotyping of polymorphic variants of genes associated with the severity of COVID-19 has been developed, based on multilocus PCR and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry of DNA molecules. The frequencies of 45 single nucleotide polymorphisms of COVID-19 candidate genes in a population sample of Russians from Tomsk are characterized. The results are compared with data for populations from the 1000 Genomes Project.