GCAT Genomes for life, participates in the bigger genetic analysis, to date, to uncover the biology of COVID-19

Can Ruti - That scientists from all over the world have aligned themselves with the aim of studying the genetics of covid is an exceptional fact. The scientific magazine Nature has published a study that is the result of the participation of eighty investigations, over three years, and in which a team from the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP) participated. The work helps to understand how our genes influence the probability of contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the severity of the disease, COVID-19.

Imagine a population almost as large as the one that inhabits Badalona. Two months after the pandemic, the monitoring of almost two hundred and twenty thousand people began, on whom more than three million checks were carried out. Experts from all over the world joined the initiative led by those from the University of Helsinki, including the GCAT project team in Badalona, ​​led by Rafael de Cid.

Among other findings, the research corroborates that there are certain previous chronic diseases and that there are genetic modifications that favor the virulence of the disease. The study identifies new loci or positions occupied by a gene in the chromosome to the point that the biology of the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 is considered complete. This fact provides valuable information on three crucial biological aspects: Viral entry, the respiratory tract and the immune system. In addition, it opens the doors to new therapeutic options and also consolidates the use to treat covid of drugs that are already used to deal with other diseases.

Beyond the biological issue, research has investigated how socio-economic or gender factors, among others, determine the infection - which women suffer more - and the evolution of the disease - which is more serious in men . The population on which the sample was taken is adults, aged 40 to 70.