CSIC launches genetics study to identify individual risk of developing serious forms of COVID-19

Researchers from the National Scientific Research Council (Spanish acronym: CSIC) have started up a genetics study to identify the individual risk of developing serious forms of COVID-19. The results could help prevent serious infections and discover potential treatments.

"The aim of our study is to find out why some patients infected with the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) barely suffer clinical symptoms while others develop very serious forms of the disease COVID-19", explains Anna Planas, a CSIC researcher at the Biomedical Research Institute of Barcelona (Spanish acronym: IIBB), who is coordinating the INMUGEN project. "Old age and the presence of other chronic diseases increase the risk of suffering a severe reaction and needing to be taken into intensive care, which may even lead to death. However, there are also other patients who are much younger and without underlying conditions who develop very serious forms of the disease for reasons that are presently unknown. We think that the response could lie in genetics", she adds.

"The project proposes to study genes with innate immunity (which is the defence system we are born with) to explain the greater risk of some people developing serious forms of the disease COVID-19", explains Anna Planas.

Minor genetic differences exist in normal people that may determine the different abilities of people to respond to attacks caused by certain infections. "To that end, we will study genetic differences focused on genes with innate immunity", specified Anna Planas. "We will study the DNA of patients with serious infections and others with minor infections. We hope that the results will help identify those people with a risk of developing serious symptoms, since they are the ones that will need the greatest protection. And we also hope that this will allow us to find molecular targets to develop potential treatments", she adds.

This project is funded by the CSIC and is a collective effort by different teams of multidisciplinary researchers. We will obtain samples from patients at the Clinic Hospital in Barcelona thanks to the support and collaboration of different researchers and services at this hospital. Also taking part in the project are Dr. Israel Fernández-Cadenas from Sant Pau Hospital in Barcelona, and the following CSIC researchers: Jordi Pérez Tur, from the Biomedicine Institute of Valencia; Marta López de Diego, from the National Biotechnology Centre (Spanish acronym: CNB-CSIC); Fuencisla Matesanz, from the López-Neyra Institute of Parasitology and Biomedicine of Granada; Lara Lloret, form the Institute of Physics of Cantabria; Ignacio López Cabido, from the Supercomputing Centre of Galicia, and Dr Planas.

Non official translation