Researchers find gene linked to asymptomatic COVID-19

ABC NEWS (Australia)

At the height of the COVID pandemic, it was a mystery why some people were badly affected by the virus and others displayed no symptoms at all. A joint Australian and US study has found a genetic link between people who were asymptomatic.

Transcript

00:00 So the link is pretty strong.

00:02 It's the first time we actually match a genetic link

00:06 with a symptomatic COVID infection.

00:09 And the gene we identified, if you do have it,

00:13 you're twice more likely to not have any symptom

00:16 for COVID infection.

00:18 And if you carry two copies of that gene,

00:20 you are eight times more likely to not have any symptoms

00:24 after COVID.

00:26 - And how common is it for people to get COVID

00:29 and have no symptoms?

00:31 - So this gene is very dependent

00:34 on your ethnicity background.

00:36 And if you are from European ancestry,

00:39 it's about 10% of individual that will carry this gene.

00:44 So it is fairly frequent.

00:47 - How does this gene work to suppress the COVID symptoms?

00:50 - So this gene is part of the immune system

00:55 and it present a small part of the virus.

00:58 And the small part of the virus

00:59 that this gene called HLA-B15

01:02 is able to present from SARS-CoV-2

01:05 is very similar from another part of the spike protein

01:08 from the seasonal coronaviruses.

01:11 So during winter, when we catch a cold,

01:13 the just normal cold, the winter cold,

01:17 it can be because of one of the seasonal coronaviruses,

01:20 which are from the same family than the SARS-CoV-2

01:24 because they all belong to the coronaviruses family.

01:28 And they share some similarity from some part of the virus.

01:31 And what we found is that HLA-B15 gene

01:34 is able to present this very similar part

01:37 between the two viruses.

01:38 And that immune system is able to recognize

01:41 the two viruses in exactly the same fashion.

01:45 - And what determines Stephanie

01:46 who has this protective gene?

01:48 Is it pretty random or is there a pattern?

01:50 - It's come from your parents.

01:53 So you inherit HLA molecule from both your parents.

01:57 And so it is a bit of a good luck

02:00 that you will carry HLA-B15

02:03 that will lead to not have any symptom from COVID.

02:06 - And how could this knowledge help those

02:08 who are vulnerable to COVID

02:10 or who were very ill when they contract the infection?

02:13 - So for the moment, most of the research on COVID

02:17 has been focusing on severe COVID

02:20 to try to apply some global solution

02:22 for people who are sick.

02:24 By understanding people are naturally protected

02:27 and remain asymptomatic,

02:29 we hope to find the mechanism behind this

02:31 to be applied to other individuals

02:33 that are actually sick with COVID.

02:35 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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