Human susceptibility to Covid-19 is linked to genetic traits, according to an Italian study.
The research was being reported today to the on-line conference of the European Society of Human Genetics.
It comes from 130 patients in the Tuscany region of Italy and was based on whole exome sequencing.
Researchers report an average of three pathogenic mutations for each patient linked to susceptibility to infection.
Researcher Professor Alessandra Renieri, director of the Medical Genetics Unit at the University Hospital of Siena, Italy, said: “Our data, although preliminary, are promising, and now we plan to validate them in a wider population. Going beyond our specific results, the outcome of our study underlines the need for a new method to fully assess the basis of one of the more complex genetic traits, with an environmental causation (the virus), but a high rate of heritability.
"We need to develop new mathematical models using artificial intelligence in order to be able to understand the complexity of this trait, which is derived from a combination of common and rare genetic factors."
Conference chair Professor Joris Veltman, of Newcastle University, UK, said: "Our Italian colleagues present the first insight into the role of genetic susceptibility influencing the severity of the response to a COVID19 infection. It needs to be expanded to encompass much larger populations, but it is impressive to see the speed at which research on this virus has proceeded in just a few months’ time.”
* A second study, presented to the conference today, warns of potential gender bias in genetic research.
The researchers from Finland and Edinburgh, UK, point out that participants for many studies may be self-selecting. Their research found that women with genetically-linked increased weight were more reluctant to take part in studies than men – leading to an overall bias in female participants taking part in other studies.
Researcher Dr Andrea Ganna, from the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland, Helsinki, Finland, said: "For example, in the recent pandemic we know that those people who have been tested for Covid-19 were not chosen at random and share common characteristics, so making the right choice of controls to be used to understand if there are any genetic determinants involved is very important. I think our study shows what the risks are if this is not done."
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