Why do some people die from COVID-19 infection while others don’t even show symptoms?
The consumer genomics company 23andMe is beginning a major research project to find out whether there could be hidden genetic reasons behind the fact that some young, previously healthy people are dying from COVID-19, in addition to older people and those with underlying health conditions.
The company plans to offer free genetic tests to 10,000 people who’ve been hospitalized with COVID-19, and then study the results to uncover genetic factors that could influence how different people respond to the virus, according to the MIT Technology Review.
23andMe isn’t the only entity on the hunt for a genetic key to the coronavirus. The COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative, an international consortium, is sharing genetic data on COVID-19 cases from Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. And the DNA testing company Ancestry has received 250,000 responses to its COVID-19 project.
An initial look at the genes of 900 COVID-19 cases by the Host Genetics Initiative turned up no significant genetic hits. The consortium is now preparing an analysis of twice as many cases to see if the results change.
“If we don’t find a really big signal in the next month or so, then I think genetics is not going to be of huge value in the management of the disease, like determining who you treat,” says Andrea Ganna, who coordinates the initiative.
Researchers have already speculated that blood type could influence a person’s version of ACE-2, the protein the coronavirus uses to fuse with human cells and gain access to them.
“But preliminary findings have not yet been borne out by the larger gene hunts,” writes author Antonio Regalado.