This article is the original of translational medicine network, please indicate the source when reprinting
Author: Sibyl
After being infected with the new crown virus, most patients will have symptoms of smell or taste failure, but a considerable number of patients have not experienced such a situation, and the exact mechanism of its occurrence is currently unknown. As many as 1.6 million people in the United States have reportedly not fully recovered their sense of smell or taste after 6 months of COVID-19 infection. According to a team of researchers at genetic testing firm 23andMe, there is one gene loci that may be associated with symptoms of decreased olfactory taste in people infected with covid-19.
On January 17, 2022, 23andMe's research team published an article in Nature Genetics titled "The UGT2A1/UGT2A2 locus is associated with COVID-19-related loss of smell or taste." The article pointed out that the symptoms of olfactory and taste failure in new crown infected people are related to a gene locus near two olfactory genes in olfactory epithelial cells.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-021-00986-w
The team conducted an online survey of those infected with COVID-19 who participated in the study, including how their infections had gone and the symptoms they developed. Of the nearly 70,000 people, 68 percent had experienced symptoms of loss of smell or taste. Women are more likely than men to develop this symptom (72% of women compared to 61% of men), and younger people and people of European ancestry are more likely to develop such symptoms.
68% of people experience taste and smell failure
The researchers then divided the participants into five pedigree groups and used genome-wide correlation analysis to study them. They found that a gene loci on chromosome 4 increased the risk of losing smell and taste in people infected with COVID-19 by 11 percent, and it was located near the UGT2A1 and UGT2A2 genes. As the researchers mentioned in the article, the expression products of these two genes can be found in olfactory epithelial cells. Although not yet fully understood, the results of this study suggest that the UGT2A1 or UGT2A2 gene plays a role in COVID-19 patients who have lost their sense of taste and smell.
Adam Auton, vice president of human genetics at 23andMe and lead author of the study, said: "As far as we know, this discovery has taught us that the symptoms of a loss of smell and taste are genetically linked, and perhaps allow us to figure out how the virus affects our bodies." However, this is only the first step, after which we need to continue to study the biological causes behind it. “
By performing SNP phenotypic group association analysis of about 1300 phenotypes in the 23andMe database, the researchers found that four other phenotypes were also associated with this locus, and two of them were related to smell or taste, such as preferences for tobacco and ice cream flavors.
In addition, out of 150 thousand base pairs, there are a total of 4 genes: UGT2A1, UGT2A2, UGT2B4 and SULT1B1. Among them, UGT2A1 and UGT2A2 are the genes closest to the SNP locus (located in the introns of overlapping genes), and their expression products belong to the uridine diphosphate glycosyltransferase family, which is an enzyme involved in the elimination of odor in olfactory epithelial cells.
Auton adds that there are many factors that can affect smell or taste, such as sensory sensitivity and severity of infection before infection. "In this study, we demonstrated for the first time that an individual's genes also play a huge role."
However, the researchers also pointed out that the study has certain limitations, although the sample size is large, but the number of people of European ancestry is the majority. And it mainly relies on patient self-reports, olfactory failure and taste failure are not divided into two symptoms to be counted, so the study of this symptom still needs a lot of experimental investigation.
Resources:
https://www.genomeweb.com/infectious-disease/23andme-study-associates-gene-locus-covid-19-related-loss-smell-taste#.YeeYP3pBxD8
Note: This article is intended to introduce the progress of medical research and cannot be used as a reference for treatment options. For health guidance, please visit a regular hospital.
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