African clue to anti-COVID gene
Friday January 14th 2022
Swedish researchers say they have pinpointed a gene variant that protects against severe COVID infection.
Described as a global metastudy, the research, published in *Nature Genetics*, focused on people of African ancestry because they do not carry Neanderthal genes.
The protective gene variant (rs10774671-G) determines the length of the protein encoded by the gene OAS1, according to the researchers. A longer variant of the protein has previously been found to be effective at breaking down the COVID virus.
The researchers set out to examine a region of DNA linked to a 20% reduced risk of severe infection among people of European ancestry. It has been found to be inherited from Neanderthals among half of these people.
The researchers say the region is “packed with numerous genetic variants,” leading to the new analysis which removes the Neanderthal element of genetics.
The study examined 2,787 hospitalised patients of African ancestry and compared them with 130,997 people analysed in six previous cohort studies. The analysis was compared with a previous metastudy of people of European ancestry.
Researcher Professor Brent Richards, of McGill University, Canada, said: “That we are beginning to understand the genetic risk factors in detail is key to developing new drugs against COVID-19.”
Researcher Hugo Zeberg, of the Karolinska Institutet, said: “This study shows how important it is to include individuals of different ancestries. If we had only studied one group, we would not have been successful in identifying the gene variant in this case.”
Multi-ancestry fine mapping implicates OAS1 splicing in risk of severe COVID-19 *Nature Genetics* 13 January 2022
Tags: Africa | Europe | Flu & Viruses | Genetics
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