Covid, a study that opens up to hope. And also to hypothetical new drugs. “It will not take long to know if and to what extent you are predisposed to Sars-Cov-2, but anyway a few years will pass. The predisposition is like a mosaic, you need to know the single tiles that make it up. In this case, those of the genome” . The premise is de rigueur for the scientist. And it serves to dispel forward rushes and false hopes. This does not mean that another important piece has been added by the researchers of the Ceinge (Center for Genetic Engineering and Advanced Biotechnologies) in Naples to the multifactorial puzzle in which the Covid disease is identified.
Them, those of the staff led by Achille Iolascon with Mario Capasso, professors of medical genetics at Federico II and principal investigators of the Neapolitan Institute, have made fleas on the genome of a million healthy subjects. Then they went on to analyze in detail that of 7 thousand positive Covid, selected from hospitalized and serious patients, even those who ended up in intensive care. And finally, after focusing specifically on a single chromosome, 21, they took stock.
The result? The discovery of the determining role of 5 genetic variants. Variants capable of altering the functions of two genes, TMPRSS2 and MX1, and therefore predispose to a severe disease, the one that expresses itself with more severe symptoms.
Science goes on in small steps and the study published in the prestigious journal insciencia provides further information on the coronavirus which has been killing millions of people around the world for over a year. At the moment, we know which are the risk factors that most expose to infection, from advanced age to male sex and up to comorbidities. Those chronic diseases that, normally kept under control with drugs, once attacked by the virus can become ungovernable, to the point of being overwhelmed. But let’s talk about factors that do not explain the individual clinical manifestations. And therefore for a year now, the researchers of the Ceinge-Advanced Biotechnology, have focused on those genetic factors, potentially responsible for a more devastating form of Covid.
“Three million variants are represented in the human genome – explains Iolascon – we have analyzed them, identifying five with a frequency in the population that has not contracted the disease greater than that present in patients infected with the virus. We then examined the genome of the patients. in which Covid has had a favorable course and that of the subjects defeated by the severity of the pathology. In particular, it has been found that some variants are more frequently represented in the genome of the range of patients in resuscitation and much less in that of subjects with a favorable prognosis . Finally, we went to see what these variables correspond to and what they govern “.
The work indicates, among others, a variant of the MX1 protein: “Its function – continues the scientist – has to do with interferon and with the substances that humans produce in response to Covid infection and, more generally, to viral infections. It can be deduced that individuals in which MX1 is more expressed, fight and are more easily able to annihilate the virus than those who produce it in smaller quantities. Obviously, this protein thanks to the info acquired it could become a therapeutic target by a drug-target “.
“The study – adds Capasso – lays the foundations for developing new genetic tests that allow us to predict which subjects are at high risk of developing serious clinical manifestations of Covid”.
The research results benefited from the contribution of Immaculate Andolfo (Ceinge research biologist) and di Roberta Russo (biologist researcher of Medical Genetics of Federico II and Ceinge), in international collaboration with the consortium “Covid-19 Host Genetics Initiative”. And it was the consortium that acquired the genetic data of the subjects enrolled in various European countries and of different ages and sexes.
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