Jul 14, 2020
Two Genetic Regions Linked with Severe COVID-19
Posted by Omuterema Akhahenda in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, health
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Itâs not yet clear why some people infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, get really sick, while others have only mild symptoms. Thereâs some evidence that chronic health conditionsâsuch as hypertension and diabetes can play a role, and scientists know that peopleâs genes can influence how their bodies react to other viruses. In a preprint posted to medRxiv on June 2, researchers describe a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of from 1,610 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and 2,205 healthy controls. The authors identified variants in two regionsâthe locus that encodes blood type and a multi-gene cluster on chromosome 3âthat were linked to respiratory failure during SARS-CoV-2 infection.
In a genome-wide association study, variants in both the ABO blood group locus and a cluster of genes on human chromosome 3 are more common among COVID-19 patients with respiratory failure than in the general population.
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