Coronavirus disease 2019
(COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
(SARS-CoV-2), is reported to vary across different populations in the
prevalence of infection, in the death rate of patients, in the severity of
symptoms and in the drug response of patients. Among host genetic factors that
can influence all these attributes human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genetic system
stands out as one of the leading candidates. Case-control studies, large-scale
population-based studies, as well as experimental bioinformatics studies are of
utmost importance to confirm HLA susceptibility spectrum of COVID-19. This
review presents the results of the first case-control and epidemiological
studies performed in several populations, early after the pandemic breakout.
The results are pointing to several susceptible and protective HLA alleles and
haplotypes associations with COVID-19, some of which might be of interest for
the future studies in Croatia, due to its common presence in the population.
However, further multiple investigations from around the world, as numerous as
possible, are needed to confirm or deteriorate these preliminary results.