NPR’s Leila Fadel talks with Dr. Jill Hollenbach, a professor of neurology and epidemiology at UC San Francisco who organized a research of genes linked to asymptomatic COVID-19.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Some individuals catch COVID-19 however get no signs. A brand new research finds a genetic mutation could clarify why. Here to inform us extra is research co-author Jill Hollenbach, a professor of neurology and epidemiology at UC San Francisco. Good morning and welcome to this system.
JILL HOLLENBACH: Good morning. Good to be right here.
FADEL: So I feel lots of people who simply heard me describe this genetic mutation would possibly surprise, how do I get that? I imply, how many individuals have this genetic variant? And why does it hold them from getting sick once they contract COVID?
HOLLENBACH: Yeah, so it is a comparatively widespread variant of a set of genes referred to as HLA. And only for some context, these are the genes that we speak about once we speak about matching for transplants. So there’s a whole lot of totally different variations of those genes. They differ from inhabitants to inhabitants. But in people with European ancestry, we see this specific model that we recognized in our research in about 10% of individuals. It varies between ancestral teams.
FADEL: And what do you imply it varies between ancestral teams?
HOLLENBACH: I imply, given your ancestry, you might be kind of more likely to have this specific variant. So we discover that in numerous populations anyplace from two to possibly 12% of the inhabitants.
FADEL: And how does it shield individuals from COVID signs?
HOLLENBACH: Yeah, effectively, what we expect is that persons are protected via some preexisting immunity that they’ve from prior publicity to seasonal chilly viruses. So there’s a whole lot of coronaviruses, and a few of them trigger what all of us expertise as delicate seasonal colds. And a few of these are – share a whole lot of similarities with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. And we expect that, for no matter motive, these people which have this specific variant of HLA kind notably good immunity in the direction of these colds. It’s very efficient at coping with the SARS-CoV-2 virus once they encounter it. So it is form of like having a military of immune cells which might be primed and able to assault as quickly because the virus infects them.
FADEL: That sounds nice. How do you discover out if you happen to do have that variant?
HOLLENBACH: Well, it is not one thing that you’d usually discover out except, for instance, you have been going to be a volunteer bone marrow donor otherwise you have been being examined for some form of medical necessity. We’re not essentially recommending that folks go seeking to discover out whether or not they have this variant as a result of it does not guarantee that you will be asymptomatic. It simply makes you more likely to be so.
FADEL: Right. And so why does it matter to know that this exists? How might the findings be utilized in COVID therapy, vaccine analysis?
HOLLENBACH: You know, I feel that, from a basic perspective, understanding what genetic and immunological circumstances provides individuals an higher hand, by way of managing an infection to the purpose that they do not even expertise any signs, provides us a whole lot of clues about what are the mandatory, you already know, circumstances wanted to have that form of end result. We’re hoping that this can assist us to design a extra precision medicine-oriented form of method to vaccines, and specifically, provides us a chance to consider whether or not, you already know, a objective for vaccination could be absence of signs versus the absence of an infection.
FADEL: Jill Hollenbach, a professor of neurology and epidemiology at UC San Francisco. Thank you on your time.
HOLLENBACH: Yeah, thanks a lot for having me.
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