SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 30 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The research staff of the Genomics Area of the Technological and Renewable Energy Institute (ITER), dependent on the Tenerife Island Council, has participated in a research study that has achieved new results on the genetic mutations that determine the severity of Covid-19 .
The study, which helps to understand possible complications associated with this disease, is part of the international ‘SCOURGE’ project, in which institutions from Spain and Latin America participate, and of which the ITER Genomics Area is a part.
The results of this study, carried out over more than two years, in which new genes have been identified that explain the severity of the disease and its clinical variability between sexes and ages, have been published in the scientific journal ‘Human Molecular Genetics’ and It has been carried out thanks to the financing of the COVID-19 Fund of the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII), which in 2020 financed more than 130 projects related to Covid-19, as well as with various resources launched through the initiative ‘ITER Scientific Bets to collaborate in the fight against COVID-19’.
Specifically, the team of researchers has shown the existence of various genetic variants that influence the evolution of Covid-19, some of them unequally in men and women, and how their effect is more evident in the group of younger men. 60 years old.
These results are in line with data from previous studies where the existence of mutations linked to the X chromosome were identified that are the cause of severe Covid-19 that only affects young men, collects a note from the Cabildo.
The study has been coordinated by Dr. Carlos Flores, scientific manager of the Genomics Area and principal investigator of the Genetic Variation and Disease Group of the Fundación Canaria Institute of Health Research of the Canary Islands attached to the Research Unit of the Hospital Nuestra Señora de Candelaria; Dr. Ángel Carracedo, from the Galician Public Foundation for Xenomic Medicine and CIMUS-University of Santiago de Compostela, and Dr. Pablo Lapunzina, from the La Paz-IDIPAZ University Hospital, all of them researchers from the Center for Biomedical Research Network, CIBER.
The authors of this work have studied for two years the genome of 11,939 cases of COVID-19 from all over Spain with extensive clinical information on the affected people, and in this research they have focused on patients from 34 Spanish hospitals recruited between March and December of 2020.
In addition, joint analyzes have been carried out with genomic data from the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) and the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative (HGI) international consortium.
The results of this study will contribute to determining the risk of suffering from severe Covid-19, to identifying possible associated complications and to advancing in the discovery of targets for new treatments.
