It seems scientists have found a link between Covid19 and dementia where a dementia linked gene increases COVID19 severity in patients.
Adopting all the measures such as washing your hands, practicing social distancing, and self-isolating are the only ways to avoid getting infected with the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19. But there is one other major factor that scientists have discovered which tends to play a big role in how you can catch the coronavirus. This factor happens to be your genes which can determine whether you are susceptible to catching a severe case of COVID-19 or not. A new study has found a dementia linked gene increases COVID19 and doubles the severity of the disease in aged patients.
Studies reveal a gene linked to dementia responsible for increasing the risk of COVID-19
According to studies, a faulty gene linked to dementia tends to double the risk of developing serious and severe coronavirus. Professor David Melzer, who led the team out of the Exeter Medical School and the University of Connecticut School of Medicine said: “Several studies have now shown that people with dementia are at high risk of developing severe COVID-19”.
Melzer further explains: “This study suggests that this high risk may not simply be due to the effects of dementia, advancing age or frailty, or exposure to the virus in care homes”.
“It is not just age. This is an example of a specific gene variant causing vulnerability in some people” he continued. There is a stronger connection to a gene which causes severe COVID-19. The research was published in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences and helps explain why so many dementia patients may be dying of COVID19.
Now doctors can pinpoint how this faulty gene causes vulnerability to COVID-19
How was this discovery made? After analyzing the data from the UK Biobank, researchers were able to find a high risk of severe COVID-19 infections among European ancestry participants. These participants carried 2 faulty copies of the APOE gene (termed e4e4) as per reports from Exeter Medical School. This variant is a common genetic factor associated with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
These two faulty copies of this gene remain present in every one in 36 people of European ancestry. This gene is also known to increase the risks of Alzheimer’s disease up to 14-fold. It can even make a person more prone to heart disease. Now in the scenario of the coronavirus, it seems that this gene increases COVID19 symptoms that double in severity. It seems to make people even more vulnerable to the raging coronavirus creating a link between COVID19 and dementia.
Dr. Chia-Ling Kuo, of the UConn School of Medicine said: “This is an exciting result because we might now be able to pinpoint how this faulty gene causes vulnerability to COVID-19”. Scientists, researchers, and doctors all delved deep into understanding this new coronavirus and have now emerged with this new found discovery.
New treatment ideas are now possible
This latest discovery lining COVID19 and dementia has significantly shown increasing disease risks which are inevitable as people age might be due to specific biological differences. The findings can help scientists and doctors understand how some people age to 100 and beyond without much complications or without contracting many diseases, and how they manage to remain active.
It can also explain why others become disabled sooner and die in their sixties. The fact that this dementia linked gene increases COVID 19 and doubles the risk in patients has also made it possible to develop ideas for new treatment of the coronavirus as well.
According to Melzer, “The effect could be partly due to this underlying genetic change, which puts them at risk for both COVID-19 and dementia”. This seems highly likely because there have been many who contracted the virus and have recovered without experiencing a single symptom.
The new discovery of a gene increases COVID19 has generated interest in the link between genetics and the coronavirus. 23 and me are offering free genetic tests.
University of Exeter medical school
In light of this new discovery researchers have now become more interested in the connection between your genetics and COVID-19. In fact, free genetic tests have been offered by 23and Me to nearly 10,000 people who have been diagnosed with the coronavirus and are hospitalized.
Besides this, a COVID-19 Host Genetic Initiative is also being carried out by university researchers. They have begun pairing genetic profiles with medical records from all around the world.
MIT Technology Review has reported: “Scientists hope to find a gene that strongly influences, or even determines, how badly people are affected by the coronavirus”. They are now trying to ascertain which gene is responsible for allowing the virus to rampage within your body.
Examples of genetic effects on other diseases are quite well-known
Genetics have always been a deciding factor in determining how well a person can fare against diseases. Sickle-cell genes confer resistance to malaria while variants of other genes can keep people protected from HIV or to the norovirus which is an intestinal germ. People with weaker genes are highly vulnerable to diseases and this is the same case since the dementia linked gene increases COVID-19 in severity.
Andrea Ganna, who is in charge of coordinating the COVID-19 Host Genetic Initiative said: “If we don’t find a really big signal in the next month or so, then I think genetics is not going to be of huge value in the management of the disease, like determining who you treat. What is still very, very important is the biology, and understanding the biology through the genetics, and then with vaccination”. Meanwhile, the fact that the dementia linked gene increases COVID19 in aged patients can help doctors better understand the disease.
This evidence may be proof that the coronavirus infects people with a weaker genetic structure
Based on the new study out of Exeter and UConn, Melzer said: “It is pretty bulletproof—whatever associated disease we remove, the association is still there. So it looks as if it is the gene variant that is doing it … This association is not driven by people who actually have dementia”.
Read: Now new study says COVID patients no longer contagious after 11 days