The First Genetic Reason Some People Do Not Get Covid Illness

Researchers discovered on Wednesday that a certain genetic mutation doubles a person’s likelihood of never developing any symptoms after contracting Covid-19, providing the first explanation for the fortunate group known as the “super dodgers”. According to a research published in the journal Nature, those who have two copies of the variation are eight times more likely to never have any Covid symptoms.

According to earlier studies, millions of Covid infections that occurred during the pandemic were at least 20 percent asymptomatic.

Researchers used an American database of volunteer bone marrow donors to learn more about what could be causing these occurrences.

Human leukocyte antigens (HLA), which are molecules found on the surface of the majority of bodily cells, were included in the database for each individual.

HLA is used by the immune system to identify which cells belong in the body, and it is believed that they are essential for the body’s defense against viral infections.

On a mobile phone app, the researchers asked close to 30,000 participants in the bone marrow registry to self-report their Covid results and symptoms.

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Between February 2020 and late April 2021, more than 1,400 unvaccinated individuals tested positive for Covid, according to the research.

136 of them individuals did not have any Covid symptoms two weeks before or after testing positive.

Of that cohort, one in five had at least one copy of the HLA variation HLA-B*15:01.

According to the research, those who were lucky enough to inherit two copies of the gene—one from their mother and one from their father—were almost eight times more likely to be asymptomatic from Covid than other persons.

armed and prepared to fight

The scientists conducted further studies to examine T cells, which guard the body against infections, in persons who had the mutation to determine why this was the case.

The study focused on how T cells retained information about viruses they had previously encountered.

According to Jill Hollenbach, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco and the study’s principal author, this meant that they were “armed and ready for attack” the next time they came across the same infection.

Because their T cells recognized comparable cold viruses they had previously fought off, persons with the HLA variation were especially prepared for war when they were exposed to the Covid virus.

Children have often been spared the worst of Covid, according to the notion that suggests recent exposure to colds and other coronaviruses may have contributed to reduced Covid symptoms.

“Anyone who has ever been a parent knows that kids are snotty-nosed for five or six years, so I think that’s a really reasonable thing to speculate might be happening,” said Hollenbach.

According to her, the HLA variation is probably just a small part of the genetic jigsaw underlying asymptomatic Covid.

But the scientists are hoping that examining the immunological response to Covid may eventually result in fresh drugs or vaccinations.

One intriguing concept, according to Hollenbach, is a vaccination that shields against Covid symptoms rather of infection, which may last longer than the present vaccines.

The majority of study participants were white, which might restrict the results for other populations, and the study only covered a portion of the pandemic and did not account for re-infections, the researchers said.