How do host’s genetics influence the susceptibility and severity of the infection? Find out more in GEN-COVID, a COVID-19 study about genetics
Description of the Study:
- Title: GEN-COVID Project: Evaluation of the influence of host genetic factors on COVID19 infection.
- Principal Investigators: Dr. Federico Martinón Torres, Dr. Antonio Salas Ellacuriaga.
- Co-investigators: José Gómez Rial, Irene Rivero Calle, Lorenzo Redondo Collazo, Ana Isabel Dacosta Urbieta, et al.
- Study Type: Experimental research.
- Method: Next Generation Sequencing (NGS).
Objectives of the Study:
Principal Objectives:
(1) Identify genetic markers for susceptibility and prognosis of COVID-19 infection.
(2) Identify local and systemic transcriptomic signatures that allow the precise differential diagnosis of COVID-19 infection at different times of the infection as well as establish prognostic markers of its natural history.
(3) Identify soluble biomarkers related to the immune system that allow characterizing and predicting the immune response to COVID-19.
(4) Differential study of expression patterns in different host samples.
(5) Studies of proteomic patterns in samples of different nature from the host and at different stages of infection.
(6) Study of the genetic variability of the pathogen and development of diagnostic tests.
More about this Study:
COVID-19 infection presents different clinical phenotypes, from asymptomatic cases to severe pneumonia and multi-organic failure leading to death.
The genetic variability of the host may play a main role in regulating the susceptibility and the severity of the disease, as it has been shown previously in other infectious diseases, that is, explaining the different behavior of the same microorganism in different subjects. The experience of our group in host genomics and transcriptomics in infectious diseases leads us to hypothesize that the human host genetics may contribute to explain the differential patterns of COVID-19 in different subjects and age groups. Hence, this study tries to analyze the influence of genetics in the outcome of a COVID-19 infection.
The different behavior of COVID-19 in pediatric patients compared to adults may reveal important clues regarding the pathogenic mechanisms of COVID-19. Data known to date suggests that pediatric susceptibility is similar to that of adults, with an attack rate of around 15%. This reinforces the hypothesis that age-driven host factors may have a differential impact on the clinical course of the disease.
