An international study with the participation of the Superior Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) located 11 new positions in the chromosomes involved in susceptibility to infection by the SARS-CoV-2 and the clinical severity of covid-19. O worked is published today in the magazine Nature.
The identification of these genetic determinants involved in the response to the virus is essential to understand the biological mechanisms underlying the disease, find effective treatments and protect the potentially most vulnerable people. Among the findings, it is worth highlighting some genes that encode pulmonary surfactants, which play a fundamental role in breathing.
“Susceptibility and response to viral infections varies from person to person. Environmental and social factors contribute to the risk of contracting the infection, while male gender, advanced age and the presence of other diseases contribute to the risk of developing severe covid-19”, he explains. Ana Planasfrom the Barcelona Biomedical Research Institute (IIBB-CSIC).
“However, certain genetic factors also increase the likelihood of contracting the infection, needing hospitalization or developing critical covid-19,” he adds.
Evidence from thousands of people
The results obtained are the result of the international consortium COVID host genetics initiativein charge of research common genetic variants in the population that may increase the risk of infection or of developing severe covid-19. For this, the group carries out studies on thousands of patients.
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The present work is an update with more patients of an article that this consortium published in July 2021. It now presents a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of 125,584 cases of infection and more than 2.5 million controls collected in 25 countries in 60 different studies.
Spain’s participation
The CSIC provided genetic data from 236 patients and 654 controls. The analysis of the data from this cohort was led by Israel Fernandez Cadenasfrom the Research Institute of Hospital Sant Pau (IIB Sant Pau).
“In this new work, we expanded the map we started last year and almost doubled the number of regions and chromosomes studied, from 13 to 23. In addition, samples from all over the world were included, improving our knowledge of the biology processes that cause severe symptoms of covid-19”, says Fernández-Cadenas.
Among these studies is the InmunGen-CoV2 project, included in the platform Global Health of the CSIC, which brings together researchers from various institutes of the Spanish entity.