The discovery could lead to more targeted therapies in the future or even the development of tests that will assess whether a person’s due to their genetic background belongs to a high-risk group for severe Covid-19.
More than 1,000 genes may play a role in increasing the risk of serious illness from Covid-19, in addition to other risk factors such as old age, obesity or underlying diseases, according to a new study by scientists from Britain and the US. THE discovery may in the future lead to more targeted therapies or even the development of tests that will assess whether a person’s due to their genetic background belongs to a high-risk group for severe Covid-19.
The researchers, led by Professor Michael Snyder of Stanford University in California and Dr. Jonathan Cooper-Knock of the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, published their findings in the journal as part of the Covid-19 Host Genetics Initiative – to analyze data from 1.4 million people, of whom 5,100 were seriously ill with the coronavirus or died from it.
1,370 gene variants were identified which appear to be associated with the severity of Covid-19 infection and which are estimated to explain about three-quarters of the genetic risk for severe disease (the remaining one-quarter of the genetic background remains currently unknown).
As Cooper-Knock stated, “We know there are young people who are otherwise healthy, yet they are seriously ill from Covid-19. “Our effort is to find the genetic factors that put people at risk regardless of other more obvious things.”.
Snyder noted that “Our findings lay the groundwork for a genetic test that can predict who is born at increased risk for severe Covid-19. Imagine there are 1,000 DNA changes associated with severe Covid-19. If you have 585 of these changes, then you are probably extremely vulnerable and you should take all necessary precautions. “.
