Nobody fully understood what was going on during the Spanish Flu. Or in the early days of the AIDS/HIV epidemic. But fear was almost of biblical proportions as one person died, yet another survived. Now the COVID Human Genetic Effort is striving to understand why the coronavirus affects people differently.
Main Focus of the COVID Human Genetic Effort
The international consortium wants to know more about the distribution of two factors in the population:
1… Inborn errors involving a single gene causing severe COVID in previously healthy individuals
2… Inborn errors involving a single gene causing people to resist the infection despite repeated exposure
And they hope this knowledge will enable them to understand the mechanisms that cause natural immunity. Or that alternatively predispose people to contracting the disease with severe symptoms.
David Cox writing for BBC Future describes how this line of reasoning emerged in the early days of the AIDS/HIV epidemic. An immunologist named Bill Paxton wanted to know why one man remained healthy despite several partners dying. However, it was 1966 and the science was immature.
First Paxton tried to infect the man’s white blood cells with the HIV virus in a test tube. But then he found this was impossible, and concluded the man had a genetic mutation. He later realized this was an error that prevented HIV from binding to the surface of white blood cells. And his discovery led to the development of the Maraviroc anti-retroviral drugs Selzentry and Celsentri.
Researching How the Coronavirus Affects People Differently
But the COVID Human Genetic Effort has been making more enlightened progress. That’s because scientists at Edinburgh University in Scotland are beginning to understand why the coronavirus affects people differently.
They believe people vulnerable to COVID have five genes either strikingly more, or significantly less active than the general population. These relate to interferon response and susceptibility to lung inflammation. This means the virus is able to spread more easily through their body. And cause the lung damage for which the virus is notorious.
Related
Does a Neanderthal Gene Affect COVID-19?
The Role of Genetics in COVID-19 Infections
Preview Image: Contributors to Project
