Why are people with certain blood types more/less susceptible to norovirus?

Question

Infection with some types of norovirus appear to be rarer in people with some blood types than in others, see Norwalk Virus Infection and Disease Is Associated with ABO Histo-Blood Group Type, from the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Results reported here suggest that individuals with an O phenotype have an increased susceptibility to NV infection and that those expressing the type B antigen are more resistant to NV infection and symptomatic disease

That study is from 2002 and has a few possible mechanisms for it in the Discussion section - however, there is a lot of "may" and "we suspect" and basically, that further research is needed.

Has there been any further research on this? Is there any lead as to what the mechanism behind this susceptibility of type O / immunity of blood type B is?

Answer 1

Noroviruses (NoVs) and Rotaviruses (RVs) recognize histo-blood group antigens (HBGA) (Tan & Jiang, 2014). HBGA are found on most epithelial cells, which line the gut. It would make sense then, that certain strains of NoV or RV may have a higher affinity for certain HBGAs; or even not be able to bind to a certain HBGA. This is not a novel idea and is found throughout virology. Here is a paper that discusses NoVs and RVs in the context of HBGAs.

References

Tan, M., & Jiang, X. (2014). Histo-blood group antigens: A common niche for norovirus and rotavirus. Expert Reviews in Molecular Medicine, 16, E5. doi: 10.1017/erm.2014.2