An important step in discovering the link between genes and coronavirus and COVID-19. Dr Karolina Chwiałkowska from MUB works in an international research team.
The first conclusions are promising. Genes located on the third chromosome of a human being can be crucial in determining why people react differently to SARS-CoV-2 infection and differently undergo the coronavirus-induced disease. These are the findings of the world's first COVID-19 analysis results, based on large-scale studies of the entire human genome, which were published in a prestigious "New England Journal of Medicine". The research was carried out as part of an international research project in which Dr Karolina Chwiałkowska, a biotechnologist from the Centre for Bioinformatics and Data Analysis at the Medical University of Bialystok and IMAGENE.ME company, is involved.
Key research on a global scale to discover genetic predispositions for SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection and severe COVID-19 disease is being conducted as part of an international scientific consortium called "COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative (HGI)". Several hundred scientific centres, biotechnology companies and biobanks are working together to discover these relationships. The largest Polish participant in the HGI project is the Medical University of Bialystok and the IMAGENE.ME company, which supports the initiative as a technology partner.
Dr Karolina Chwiałkowska worked in a group of specialists who selected the first genes that may be associated with the severe course of COVID-19. As she claims, the adopted formula of cooperation in an international project helped in success. The HGI consortium studies are conducted in parallel in 50 countries, and their results are then collected and compared as part of global analyses combining data from many independent projects. This means that a team of researchers from one end of the world has ongoing access to the results of other scientists working on the same problem. It is this close cooperation that led to the rapid discovery of which areas of the human genome may be associated with the course of COVID-19 – explains Dr Karolina Chwiałkowska.
The first significant results obtained by researchers from the HGI consortium were made public in mid-May. They directed the attention of scientists, including Dr Chwiałkowska, to a specific region of one of 23 human chromosomes. – More precisely, it is about genes located in the so-called short arm of chromosome 3.The results of the analyses published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" included studies on a group of 2,000 infected people in Spain and Italy. The large-scale genomic analyses confirmed the relationship between genetic variation in this region of the human genome and the severe course of COVID-19 – emphasizes Dr Karolina Chwiałkowska.
"New England Journal of Medicine" is one of the most prestigious scientific journals. The data published there – the world's first results of analyses based on genome-wide association studies – may allow the assessment of genetic predispositions regarding susceptibility to infection and the severity of COVID-19. As Dr Chwiałkowska emphasizes, research is currently underway to thoroughly analyse the identified variants in this region where six genes are located: SLC6A20, LZTFL1, CCR9, FYCO1, CXCR6, XCR1.
Polish scientists, however, do not stop in research on genetic relations and predispositions for COVID-19 and plan to further intensify work. In the meantime, IMAGENE.ME has launched a complete DNA testing offer with a detailed Genetic Predisposition Report and the Health and Life Assistant application.
Thanks to the immediate, constantly updated access to the latest research results, as soon as the HGI consortium confirms the final conclusions in this regard, it will be possible to identify the presence of key variants related to SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and identify people more susceptible to severe course of COVID-19 – says dr hab. Mirosław Kwaśniewski (head of the MUB Centre for Data Research and Analysis, president of IMAGENE.ME). As the scientist emphasizes, thanks to this, the users of the Polish application will be among the first in the world to be able to verify whether they have genetic predispositions that increase the risk of severe course of COVID-19.
COVID-19 host genetics initiative results