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Study finds genetic differences associated with severe COVID-19

Researchers have found genetic differences between people who had severe COVID-19 than those who did not.

The GenOMICC study found 16 new genetic variants associated with severe COVID-19, including blood clotting, immune response and intensity of inflammation.

DNA from over 57,000 volunteers, including 7,491 severe COVID-19 patients, was compared to identify the differences in the genes of severe patients.

These findings will act as a roadmap for future efforts, opening new fields of research focused on new therapies and tests with pinpoint accuracy, experts say.

More than 1,000 participants from Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Milton Keynes took part.

The findings included how a single gene variant that disrupts a key messenger molecule in immune system signalling – called interferon alpha-10 – was enough to increase a patient’s risk of severe disease.

This highlights the gene’s key role in the immune system and suggests that treating patients with interferon – proteins released by immune cells to defend against viruses – may help manage disease in the early stages.

Professor Kenneth Baillie, the project’s chief investigator, said: “Our latest findings point to specific molecular targets in critical COVID-19. These results explain why some people develop life-threatening COVID-19, while others get no symptoms at all. But more importantly, this gives us a deep understanding of the process of disease and is a big step forward in finding more effective treatments.

“It is now true to say that we understand the mechanisms of COVID-19 better than the other syndromes we treat in intensive care in normal times – sepsis, flu, and other forms of critical illness. COVID-19 is showing us the way to tackle those problems in the future.”

The study also found that variations in genes that control the levels of a central component of blood clotting – known as Factor 8 – were associated with critical illness in COVID-19. This may explain some of the clotting abnormalities that are seen in severe cases of COVID-19.

Professor Nick Lemoine, Medical Director of the NIHR Clinical Research Network, said: "The GenOMICC study has been a key part of the UK's urgent public health research response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The scale and speed of recruitment to this important study has been enabled by the National Institute for Health Research's Clinical Research Network - which mobilised its workforce across every NHS trust in the country.

“Once again, the research community in the UK has delivered results that have the potential to change clinical practice and save lives across the world."

The findings have been published in Nature.

Read more on the NIHR website.