Can Genes Protect Against COVID Symptoms?

Can Genes Protect Against COVID Symptoms?

Unmasking COVID-19 Symptom-Free Super-Dodgers

In the realm of COVID-19 infections, the vast majority of patients exhibit symptoms, expressing the cough, sore throat, and other tell-tale signs of illness. However, an astounding 20% of individuals infected with the virus remain mysteriously symptom-free. Exploring this peculiar phenomenon, new research has discovered that these symptom-free super-dodgers are over twice as likely to carry a genetic mutation that seems to obliterate COVID-19.

Unveiling the Protective Mutation

This groundbreaking study identified a specific version of a gene called HLA-B as the protective mutation. HLA stands for human leukocyte antigen, essential for alerting our body’s natural defenses to potential health threats and triggering an immune response. Approximately 10% of the general population carries a specific mutation known as HLA-B*15:01.

When it comes to COVID-19 symptoms, this mutation plays a crucial role. By activating key immune T-cells upon infection, the mutation effectively eliminates the COVID-19 virus before noticeable symptoms can develop. Not even a runny nose emerges from this encounter.

The Impact on Vaccines

The implications of this discovery are far-reaching, potentially influencing future vaccine design. Jill Hollenbach, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, explains, “We think that this observation can help inform next-generation vaccine design and help us understand how to prevent symptoms even when people do become infected.”

Understanding the connection between the protective mutation and symptom-free COVID-19 cases, the research team delved into their study, which included over 1,400 white participants who had tested positive for COVID-19. Among the patients, 136 remained asymptomatic in the two weeks before and after testing positive. Approximately 20% of these symptom-free patients carried at least one copy of the HLA mutation that appears to protect against COVID-19 symptoms. Interestingly, some patients carried two copies of the protective HLA gene, making them more than eight times less likely to fall ill from COVID-19 compared to those without the mutation.

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Unraveling the Pre-Existing Immunity

Further exploration by the team uncovered that T-cells in patients with the protective HLA mutation exhibited reactivity to protein fragments found in the COVID-19 virus. Surprisingly, these protein fragments shared genetic sequences with other seasonal cold viruses.

The implication is that patients with the specific HLA mutation also possessed pre-existing immunity to the COVID-19 virus, enabling them to eliminate it from their system before symptoms could arise.

The Genetic Lottery for COVID

Although not directly involved in the study, Dr. Davey Smith, the head of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at the University of California, San Diego, remarked, “I think this solves a mystery that we observed during the pandemic,” emphasizing that patients with the mutation have essentially “won the genetic lottery for COVID.”

This discovery holds great importance as it deepens our understanding of how HLA genes recognize vital viral proteins, potentially aiding in the development of more effective vaccines. Dr. Smith envisions a future where our genetics, such as HLA types, determine the most suitable vaccines to train our immune systems effectively.

The findings of this groundbreaking study were published online on July 19, 2023, in the journal Nature.

More information

For more information on symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19, visit the World Health Organization.

Sources: – Jill A. Hollenbach, PhD, MPH, professor, departments of neurology and epidemiology and biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco – Davey M. Smith, MD, MAS, head, infectious diseases and global public health division, and professor and vice chair of research, department of medicine, University of California, San Diego – Nature, July 19, 2023