If an entire family tests positive for a virus, then there’s a possibility an inherited factor is at play. Geneticists already know the absence of a particular gene makes people near-immune to catching HIV/AIDS. If we can nail an epidemic down to a genetic factor we could be on the trail of a vaccine. The role of genetics in COVID-19 infections thus deserves intense scrutiny.
Breaking Research in the Role of Genetics in COVID-19 Infections
There’s increasing public interest in this intriguing, but highly technical topic. USA Today reports a number of current studies. Moreover, the New England Journal published a report of a genome-wide association study on June 11, 2020. This involves a massive amount of data artificial intelligence brings within human reach.
The study focuses our attention on the way various patients behave differently to infections of COVID-19 disease. Its goal was to understand the role of genetics in COVID-19 infection development. Researchers conducted a genome-wide study of 1980 patients with respiratory failure in Spanish and Italian epi-centers in the European epidemic.
The Methods and Results Achieved During the Genome Study
The 1980 patients with COVID-19 and respiratory failure were at seven hospitals across the study area. But the researchers selected the test and control subjects after doing quality control, and removing atypical cases. They then analyzed over eight million variations in single-base pairs of genes in DNA sequences.
The team found greater vulnerability to COVID-19 disease in the particular gene cluster 3p21.31. This was apparent in patients in the ABO blood group. Other studies have yielded similar results in the past. We are beginning to unravel the role of genetics in COVID-19 infection development. There is however, much more work to do in our search for a vaccine.
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Preview Image: Genetic Pedigree Chart
