In a new study from Imperial College London, researchers found a common genetic change is associated with a reduced risk of severe COVID-19 infection, highlighting a potential target for drugs in early treatment.
They found that people with a common genetic change to one protein were less likely to be hospitalized with severe COVID-19.
Transmembrane protease serine type 2 (TMPRSS2) is a protein present on human cells in the lungs, colon, stomach, and many other tissues.
This protein plays an important role in SARS-CoV-2 infection as it is necessary to activate the virus’ spike protein, facilitating entry into the cell.
In the human population there are several naturally occurring variants of this protein.
In the study, the team hypothesized that a common variant of the protein, called rs12329760, may affect the severity of COVID-19 infection.
This variant, which changes only one of the hundreds of amino acids in the TMPRSS2 protein, is found in roughly a quarter of the population.
The team analyzed the association between this TMPRSS2 variant and COVID-19 severity in 2,244 critically ill patients with COVID-19.
They showed that individuals who had the rs12329760 variant protein were much less likely to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19. This finding was confirmed on other large COVID-19 datasets.
The study highlights that a substantial proportion of the population was less likely to develop severe COVID-19 because of a change of one amino acid in their TMPRSS2 protein.
These results may help to explain why some people who were infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus did not develop severe symptoms.
However, it is important to remember that vaccination still remains the most reliable way to protect us against severe COVID.
The authors also performed experimental studies in human cells which confirmed that the rs12329760 variant reduces the ability of TMPRSS2 to activate the viral spike protein—an essential step in viral cell entry.
This may explain why individuals who have this variant were less likely to develop severe COVID-19 infection.
The results of this study suggest that drugs which inhibit the activity of TMPRSS2 may have a role in the early treatment of infection from those SARS-CoV-2 variants that employ TMPRSS2 in the infection pathway.
One promising candidate is camostat mesilate, a drug already approved for the treatment of chronic pancreatitis.
Recent studies have demonstrated the ability of this drug to block the entry of the SARS-CoV-2 virus into lung cells.
If you care about Covid, please read studies about a new risk factor for severe COVID-19, and this nasal vaccine may help fight new viral variants.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about physical inactivity linked to severe COVID-19 and death, and results showing that Omicron can be neutralized by a booster dose.
The study is published in Current Research in Translational Medicine and was conducted by Dr. Alessia David et al.
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