Project description:Pneumonia, an acute respiratory tract infection, is one of the major causes of mortality worldwide. Depending on the site of acquisition, pneumonia can be community acquired pneumonia (CAP) or nosocomial pneumonia (NP). The risk of pneumonia, is partially driven by host genetics. CYP1A1 is a widely studied pulmonary CYP family gene primarily expressed in peripheral airway epithelium. The CYP1A1 genetic variants, included in this study, alter the gene activity and are known to contribute in lung inflammation, which may cause pneumonia pathogenesis. In this study, we performed a meta-analysis to establish the possible contribution of CYP1A1 gene, and its three variants (rs2606345, rs1048943 and rs4646903) towards the genetic etiology of pneumonia risk. Using PRISMA guidelines, we systematically reviewed and meta-analysed case-control studies, evaluating risk of pneumonia in patients carrying the risk alleles of CYP1A1 variants. Heterogeneity across the studies was evaluated using I2 statistics. Based on heterogeneity, a random-effect (using maximum likelihood) or fixed-effect (using inverse variance) model was applied to estimate the effect size. Pooled odds ratio (OR) was calculated to estimate the overall effect of the risk allele association with pneumonia susceptibility. Egger's regression test and funnel plot were used to assess publication bias. Subgroup analysis was performed based on pneumonia type (CAP and NP), population, as well as age group. A total of ten articles were identified as eligible studies, which included 3049 cases and 2249 healthy controls. The meta-analysis findings revealed CYP1A1 variants, rs2606345 [T vs G; OR = 1.12 (0.75-1.50); p = 0.02; I2 = 84.89%], and rs1048943 [G vs T; OR = 1.19 (0.76-1.61); p = 0.02; I2 = 0.00%] as risk markers whereas rs4646903 showed no statistical significance for susceptibility to pneumonia. On subgroup analysis, both the genetic variants showed significant association with CAP but not with NP. We additionally performed a spatial analysis to identify the key factors possibly explaining the variability across countries in the prevalence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a viral pneumonia. We observed a significant association between the risk allele of rs2606345 and rs1048943, with a higher COVID-19 prevalence worldwide, providing us important links in understanding the variability in COVID-19 prevalence.
Project description:At the end of December 2019 many cases of severe pulmonary inflammation were reported in Hubei Province, China. Nearly all of the affected individuals had had contact to the wet fish market, which was believed to be the source of the novel infection and was closed on 1 January 2020. Subsequently, the Chinese health authorities confirmed that the pathogen was a previously unknown severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which belongs to the Coronaviridae family. The disease was then designated as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and rapidly spread initially in Asia and later worldwide. In March 2020 the COVID-19 outbreak was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. At the time of manuscript submission, more than 20 million people were affected by COVID-19, with more than 500,000 deaths worldwide. The article gives a general overview on the novel COVID-19 with a specific clinical focus on vascular involvement. The article is essentially based on the currently available evidence and the experiences of the authors.
Project description:Bat sarbecovirus BANAL-236 is highly related to SARS-CoV-2 and infects human cells, albeit lacking the furin cleavage site in its spike protein. BANAL-236 replicates efficiently and pauci-symptomatically in humanized mice and in macaques, where its tropism is enteric, strongly differing from that of SARS-CoV-2. BANAL-236 infection leads to protection against superinfection by a virulent strain. We find no evidence of antibodies recognizing bat sarbecoviruses in populations in close contact with bats in which the virus was identified, indicating that such spillover infections, if they occur, are rare. Six passages in humanized mice or in human intestinal cells, mimicking putative early spillover events, select adaptive mutations without appearance of a furin cleavage site and no change in virulence. Therefore, acquisition of a furin site in the spike protein is likely a pre-spillover event that did not occur upon replication of a SARS-CoV-2-like bat virus in humans or other animals. Other hypotheses regarding the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 should therefore be evaluated, including the presence of sarbecoviruses carrying a spike with a furin cleavage site in bats.
Project description:Melanoma is the most deadly of the common skin cancers and its incidence is rapidly increasing. Approximately 10% of cases occur in a familial context. To date, cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2A (CDKN2A), which was identified as the first melanoma susceptibility gene more than 20 years ago, is the main high-risk gene for melanoma. A few years later cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4) was also identified as a melanoma susceptibility gene. The technologic advances have allowed the identification of new genes involved in melanoma susceptibility: Breast cancer 1 (BRCA1) associated protein 1 (BAP1), CXC genes, telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), protection of telomeres 1 (POT1), ACD and TERF2IP, the latter four being involved in telomere maintenance. Furthermore variants in melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) and microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) give a moderately increased risk to develop melanoma. Melanoma genetic counseling is offered to families in order to better understand the disease and the genetic susceptibility of developing it. Genetic counseling often implies genetic testing, although patients can benefit from genetic counseling even when they do not fulfill the criteria for these tests. Genetic testing for melanoma predisposition mutations can be used in clinical practice under adequate selection criteria and giving a valid test interpretation and genetic counseling to the individual.
Project description:Devastating pandemics, such as that due to COVID-19, can provide strong testimony to our knowledge of the genetic and evolutionary determinants of infectious disease susceptibility and severity. One of the most remarkable aspects of such outbreaks is the stunning interindividual variability observed in the course of infection. In recent decades, enormous progress has been made in the field of the human genetics of infectious diseases, and an increasing number of human genetic factors have been reported to explain, to a great extent, the observed variability for a large number of infectious agents. However, our understanding of the cellular, molecular, and immunological mechanisms underlying such disparities between individuals and ethnic groups, remains very limited. Here, we discuss recent findings relating to human genetic predisposition to infectious disease, from an immunological or population genetic perspective, and show how these and other innovative approaches have been applied to deciphering the genetic basis of human susceptibility to COVID-19 and the severity of this disease. From an evolutionary perspective, we show how past demographic and selection events characterizing the history of our species, including admixture with archaic humans, such as Neanderthals, facilitated modern human adaptation to the threats imposed by ancient pathogens. In the context of emerging infectious diseases, these past episodes of genetic adaptation may contribute to some of the observed population differences in the outcome of SARS-CoV-2 infection and the severity of COVID-19 illness.
Project description:The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) poses an unprecedented challenge to humanity. SARS-CoV-2 infections range from asymptomatic to severe courses of COVID-19 with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), multiorgan involvement and death. Risk factors for disease severity include older age, male sex, increased BMI and pre-existing comorbidities. Ethnicity is also relevant to COVID-19 susceptibility and severity. Host genetic predisposition to COVID-19 is now increasingly recognized and whole genome and candidate gene association studies regarding COVID-19 susceptibility have been performed. Several common and rare variants in genes related to inflammation or immune responses have been identified. We summarize research on COVID-19 host genetics and compile genetic variants associated with susceptibility to COVID-19 and disease severity. We discuss candidate genes that should be investigated further to understand such associations and provide insights relevant to pathogenesis, risk classification, therapy response, precision medicine, and drug repurposing.
Project description:BackgroundThe emergence of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, in December 2019 marked the synchronization of the world to a peculiar clock that is counting infected cases and deaths instead of hours and minutes. The pandemic, highly transmissible severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has indeed caused considerable morbidity and mortality and drastically changed our everyday lives. As we continue to become acquainted with the seventh coronavirus known to infect our species, a number of its characteristics keep surprising us. Among those is the wide spectrum of clinical manifestations of the resulting coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which ranges from asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic infections to severe pneumonia, respiratory failure, and death.Main bodyData, now from patient populations, are beginning to accumulate on human genetic factors that may contribute to the observed diversified disease severity. Therefore, we deemed it prudent to review the associations between specific human genetic variants and clinical disease severity or susceptibility to infection that have been reported in the literature to date (at the time of writing this article in early August 2020 with updates in mid-September). With this work, we hope (i) to assist the fast-paced biomedical research efforts to combat the virus by critically summarizing current knowledge on the potential role of host genetics, and (ii) to help guide current genetics and genomics research towards candidate gene variants that warrant further investigation in larger studies. We found that determinants of differing severity of COVID-19 predominantly include components of the immune response to the virus, while determinants of differing susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 mostly entail genes related to the initial stages of infection (i.e., binding of the cell surface receptor and entry).ConclusionElucidating the genetic determinants of COVID-19 severity and susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection would allow for the stratification of individuals according to risk so that those at high risk would be prioritized for immunization, for example, if or when safe and effective vaccines are developed. Our enhanced understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms could also guide personalized therapeutics. Such knowledge is already beginning to provide clues that help explain, at least in part, current epidemiologic observations regarding the typically more severe or benign disease course in older males and children, respectively.
Project description:There have been over five million cases of infection with the second Corona virus to induce SARS (SARS-CoV2) and close to half a million deaths worldwide since the first report of Corona Virus Disease in late December 2019 (CoViD-19). Over two million CoViD-19 patients have recovered. The factors and variables that lead certain CoViD-19 patients to survive this otherwise aggressive and lethal viral infection are intensely researched, as is the development of productive anti-virals and of safe and effective vaccines. Several hypotheses invoke putative mutations of the ss-positive RNA SARS-CoV2 virus to states of stronger or weaker virulence and lethality. Other hypotheses propose that the patient's status of immunity, vitamin D level, Zinc deficiency or other physiological parameters determine how any given patient will effectively weather the viremia and the consequential multi-symptomatic CoViD-19. The initial cause - causa prima - underlying all the symptoms of CoViD-19 is infection of the host human cell by SARS-CoV2. The virus spike (S) protein finds its binding site, ACE2, widely distributed in all cells and tissues that potentially proffer CoViD-19 pathology. S consists of two subunits, S1 and S2, which are cleaved by the widely expressed transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2) before the virus fuses to the plasma membrane and infects the cell. Current trends show that variant alleles resulting from single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of ACE2, and genetic variants of TMPRSS2, with putative distinct affinities for S clip, may determine a complex multi-factorial spectrum of SARS-CoV2 virulence across patients, and predict CoViD-19 susceptibility.