COVID-19: a new genetic track to explain the severe forms

Paris | Researchers assured Friday that they had identified genetic peculiarities that could explain why some patients have a severe form of COVID-19, which they believe could lead to better targeting of treatments.

“The beauty of genetics is that it can predict the effects of a drug. What is really exciting about this study is that we have identified genes that are directly relevant from a therapeutic point of view, which can lead us to treatments, ”hoped the lead author of this published study. in the medical journal Nature, Kenneth Baillie (University of Edinburgh).

In an attempt to determine why some patients suffer from a severe form of the disease and others not, the researchers analyzed the genomes of more than 2,000 severely affected Britons.

By comparing it with that of other people, they identified eight genetic sequences common to severe patients with COVID. They determined that these sequences played a role in the inflammatory response the body produces to fight pathogens like the novel coronavirus.

Going further, they isolated two genes in particular, called TYK2 and CCR2, whose role is to encode proteins involved in the body’s inflammatory response.

Theoretically, acting on these substances could therefore reduce the severity of the disease.

“We have shown that people who produce more TYK2 protein are at greater risk for COVID. However, there is a drug on the market that inhibits it, ”assured Kenneth Baillie at an online press conference.

The group of drugs that limit the action of the TYK2 protein, called Janus kinase inhibitors (JAKs), are used in particular against rheumatoid arthritis, an inflammatory disease.

In addition, according to Kenneth Baillie, trials are underway on a synthetic antibody treatment that combats the action of the CCR2 protein.

According to him and his colleagues, there is an urgent need to test these drugs on patients severely affected by COVID.

In recent months, several genetic leads have been explored in an attempt to explain the severe forms of COVID-19.

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