Genes associated with severe Covid-19

09 Jul 2020

Genes & Covid-19 severity


A recent genome-wide association study (Ellinghaus et al., 2020) has identified genetic variations in two loci associated with severe Covid-19 outcome. In this case, disease severity was defined as respiratory failure.

The variations are located at the AB0 blood group locus and the 3p21.31 gene cluster. We examined regulation of the genes from the latter susceptibility locus in the GENEVESTIGATOR® database. Interestingly, we observed several cases of significant down-regulation of the LZTFL1 gene upon viral infection (influenza and SARS-Cov studies).

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Figure: Regulation of genes from a cluster associated with susceptibility to severe Covid-19 upon viral infection. Conditions inducing a significant down-regulation of the gene LZTFL1 are shown. Data selection: viral diseases studies on the Agilent human 4X44K platform.

Reference: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2020283