Scientists from Corporal Michael Crescenz VA Medical Center found genetic links between COVID-19 severity and certain medical conditions that are known risk factors for severe COVID-19.
The research is published in PLOS Genetics and was conducted by Anurag Verma et al.
Some people with COVID-19 experience the disease more severely than others.
Previous research has identified certain variants in specific human genes that are associated with a person experiencing more severe COVID-19.
Some of these variants may also be associated with other medical conditions that may already be well understood; identifying these shared variants could improve understanding of COVID-19 and illuminate potential new paths for treatment.
To identify shared variants, in the study the team used a dataset of genotypic information linked to electronic health record data (EHR) for more than 650,000 U.S. veterans.
They examined links between variants often found in Veterans who experienced severe COVID-19 and variants associated with a broad selection of medical conditions.
The team found that certain variants associated with COVID-19 are also linked to known risk factors for COVID-19.
Particularly strong links were found for variants linked to venous embolism and thrombosis, as well as type 2 diabetes and ischemic heart disease—two known COVID-19 risk factors.
The team also found genetic links between severe COVID-19 and neutropenia for Veterans of African and Hispanic ancestry; these links did not appear for those of European ancestry.
Among respiratory conditions, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and chronic alveolar lung disease shared genetic links with severe COVID-19, but other respiratory infections and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) did not.
Some variants associated with severe COVID-19 were also associated with reduced risk of autoimmune conditions, such as psoriasis and lupus.
These findings highlight the need to carefully weigh various aspects of the immune system when developing new treatments.
The team says these findings could help deepen understanding of COVID-19 and guide the development of new treatments.
If you care about COVID, please read studies about the cause of severe inflammation in COVID-19, and why older people more likely to have COVID-19.
For more information about COVID, please see recent studies about how COVID-19 damages lungs, and results showing these existing drugs can kill COVID-19 virus.
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