Scientists have found a version of a particular gene that may explain why some people who test positive for the coronavirus never develop any covid-19 symptoms. The discovery could help scientists open new avenues for developing vaccines and treatments.
who contract the SARS-CoV-2 virus are asymptomatic. Scientists say these people might have quicker immune responses that fight the virus before symptoms can set in and lead to health complications.
genes, which play a critical role in our body’s ability to recognize and fight pathogens. These genetic warriors are “the most medically important region of the genome,” said Jill Hollenbach, a professor in the departments of neurology and epidemiology at the University of California at San Francisco., Hollenbach and her team enrolled 29,947 volunteer bone marrow donors, because high-quality genetic data was already available for this group.
During the nine-month study period, 1,428 unvaccinated individuals reported a positive coronavirus test, and 136 of them had no symptoms. Among the asymptomatic participants, 20 percent carried a common HLA variant called HLA-B*15:01. People carrying two copies of this variant — one passed down from each parent — were more than eight times more likely to remain asymptomatic than those carrying other HLA variants.
Although the results may explain why some asymptomatic infections occur, the study was limited to genetic data that already existed from prior work. Also, the study group was quite homogenous, with all participants self-identifying as White and 81 percent self-identifying as female.“In terms of diversity, we cannot expand these results to all populations because we know, based on epidemiological reports, covid symptoms vary across populations,” said Asgari.
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