Scientists from the Health Institute Carlos III found that shorter telomeres, a feature of aging, may influence the severity of COVID-19 and the risk of dying from the disease, particularly in women.
The research was presented at European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases and was conducted by Dr. Ana Virseda-Berdices et al.
Telomeres are protective caps on the end of chromosomes (DNA) that shorten over the lifetime, and their length is often used as a measure of cellular age.
Shorter telomeres are associated with a number of age-related diseases including cancer and osteoarthritis, and are also linked with higher risk of developing infections.
Given the importance of telomere length in cellular health and aging, it is critical to understand the dynamics of telomeres in COVID-19 infection.
In this study, researchers examined the association between relative telomere length (RTL) at disease onset and COVID-19 mortality in 608 adults hospitalized with COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic (from March to September 2020).
Blood samples were collected within 20 days of COVID-19 diagnosis or hospitalization, and the team did genetic analysis to measure telomere length in blood cells.
Overall, 533 patients survived and 75 died from COVID-19.
The team found that in all patients, relative telomere length was strongly inversely linked to dying from COVID-19 at 30 and 90 days after hospital discharge.
This means shorter telomeres were linked to an increased risk of death, or longer telomeres were linked to a reduced risk of death.
Further analyses showed that a longer relative telomere length was associated with a 70% lower risk of dying from COVID-19 in all women at 30 days, and a 76% reduced risk of dying from the disease at 90 days.
Similarly, in women aged 65 years or older, longer relative telomere length was associated with a 78% lower risk of death from COVID-19 at 30 days, and 81% reduced risk at 90 days.
However, no differences were found in relative telomere length between men who survived COVID-19 and those who died of the disease.
These findings showed telomere length in COVID-19 mortality and highlight its potential as a predictor of death and severe outcome, particularly in older women.
The team says it’s possible that the lack of association between telomere length and COVID-19 mortality in men could be due to increased comorbidities and risk factors in men that masked the effect.
Female patients tend to present with less severe disease and are more likely to survive COVID-19, probably due to fewer lifestyle risk factors and comorbidities than men.
Besides aging, telomere dysfunction is also associated with smoking, poor diet, higher body mass index and other factors that promote oxidative stress, chronic inflammation and cancer.
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If you care about COVID, please read studies about how to minimize lung damage in COVID patients, and the key to stopping indoor COVID virus spread.
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