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Dementia and other cognitive disorders now appear to be risk factors for developing severe COVID-19, according to research from the University of Georgia. The findings highlight the need for special care for populations with these pre-existing conditions during the pandemic.
In a blinded study, researchers analyzed data from nearly 1,000 diseases and two specific genes to compare the health profiles of COVID-19 patients with those who tested negative, looking for commonalities in COVID-19 patients.
The study, published online in the journal Brain, behavior and immunity, was based on data from the UK Biobank, a long-term study of more than 500,000 participants investigating the respective contributions of genetic predisposition and environmental exposure to disease development.
Starting in March, the UK Biobank started reporting on the COVID-19 status of its participants. The Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of genetics team, led by assistant professor Kaixiong Ye and his postdoc, Jingqi Zhou, quickly connected the status of COVID-19 with electronic health data.
We take a hypothesis-free approach and the most statistically significant are cognitive disorders and type 2 diabetes. At this time, we do not know the mechanisms behind these associations, we only know that they are more common in COVID-19 patients. “
Kaixiong Ye, lead author of the study
In looking at the genetic factors that put some people at increased risk for severe COVID-19, the team focused on two genes: ACE2 and TPMPRSS2, which are known to be critical for the virus to enter human cells.
“In the TMPRSS2 gene we found that a specific genetic variation is more common in the COVID-19 patient,” he said, adding that while the discovery was novel at the time, the team knows that there is now more data on genetic factors. of the guest than even three months ago.
The research team also found that variations in genes related to SARS-CoV-2 infection may be associated with severe COVID-19 requiring hospitalization.
“And we are beginning to understand how those genetic variations are making a difference,” he said, noting the extraordinary pace of research around the world during the pandemic as scientists work on SARS CoV 2. Since they began in the spring of 2020 , Ye’s group has been able to follow up on their own previous work and communicate with their peers around the world to contribute to the general body of knowledge about the disease.
“Working on a disease, the whole field is converging around the world at the same time. It really shows the power of science,” Ye said. “What my group is really doing is just data analysis, large-scale data mining, but from vaccine development to patient studies, scientists are attacking the disease from different aspects, and that moves us very far. quickly in the fight against COVID-19 “.
Source:
Magazine reference:
Zhou, J., et al. (2020) Cognitive disorders associated with hospitalization for COVID-19: results of an observational cohort study. Brain, behavior and immunity. doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2020.10.019.
