For nearly two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, scientists have been trying to work out why some groups of people are more at risk of developing acute and potentially fatal symptoms.
A recent study pinpoints a specific gene as a “candidate effector gene” that could be responsible for the development of critical complications in some people infected with the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19.
The study, led by scientists at the University of Oxford, was published in the journal Nature Genetics. Several Arab scientists commented to Al-Fanar Media on the study’s implications.
The study found a gene known as LZTFL1 was associated with increased incidence of critical symptoms such as respiratory failure among people infected with Covid-19. The study attributed this to the gene’s role in preventing the cells lining the respiratory system from responding properly to the virus. The gene increases the cells’ production of a protein known as the ACE2 receptor on their surfaces, helping the virus attach to the cells and spread the infection more efficiently.
The study also found ethnic variations in the gene’s distribution. About 60 percent of British people of South Asian descent had increased levels of the gene, compared to 15 percent of those of European descent. This may partly explain the higher death and hospitalisation rates in some communities in the United Kingdom, and the impact of Covid-19 on the Indian subcontinent, whose population is more vulnerable to critical complications.