Image from NIH
Guide
Have you ever been in a situation in your life where two people go out to eat and eat the same meal, one person goes to the emergency room with food poisoning and the other doesn't; or does the seasonal flu spread throughout the family, members get sick and only one person remains healthy?
Regarding the apparent randomness of the spread of the virus, doctors are always looking for the cause, is there something in the human body that prevents the invasion of the virus, such as age, vaccination status, etc.? We have not been able to find the answer to this.
Now that COVID-19 is sweeping the world, can research on this help us fend off the menacing virus?
Written | Daniela Ramas
Compiled | Bowen Chen
Responsible editor| Li Xiaowei
01
It is not unique for one spouse to receive COVID-19 and the other to be spared
Recently, Daniela J. Lamas, a New York Times columnist and doctor at Brigham and Women's Hospital, wrote an article about Why Do Some People Never Get Covid?
In the article, she notes that a typical example can be found in Mayana Zatz, a geneticist at the University of S o Paulo. After her neighbor contracted COVID-19, his wife took care of him alone without a mask. So far, the wife has shown no signs of infection.
In fact, Zitz also wondered: Why wasn't his wife sick? Was she completely uninfected, or was she less affected by the coronavirus?
To her added surprise, after investigation, there were thousands of people who shared the same room and slept in the same bed as their partners who were infected with the virus, but did not get sick.
02
Why are anyone immune after exposure to covid-19?
Scientists and health workers have been studying the coronavirus since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. But the reason why some people don't get sick after a lot of exposure to the virus remains a mystery.
Scientists, represented by Dr. Zitz, believe that key clues may be hidden in our genes.
John Francois Deleuze, director of the National Center for Human Genome Research, said, "Because of the level of fusion of viruses and receptors, each of us is more or less sensitive to viruses. In terms of genes, some differences may prevent the virus from entering (the human body). ”
The Zitz lab also collected blood samples from 100 couples from a survey called "Partners Infected with the Virus But Not Infected Themselves."
The researchers found that compared with asymptomatic partners, the genes of infected people mutated, affecting the activity of natural killer immune cells, which are a key component of the immune system, and partners without signs of infection are more likely to have a strong natural killer cell response.
But that doesn't mean that all those who can escape COVID-19 are because of genetic credit, and there may be many other aspects at work. In any case, Zitz's discovery unveils a corner of the mystery.
"If we can really figure out what the mechanisms that provide this powerful protection are, and what they do, I think we can find new treatments," Zatz said. ”
Dr. Jean-Laurent Casanova, a pediatric immunologist and geneticist at Rockefeller University. Jean-Laurent Casanova is also one of the key figures in studying why some people are resistant to the coronavirus.
So far, Casanova and his colleagues have identified a small percentage of people who are more severely ill after contracting COVID-19. They found that the interferon gene — a protein that suppresses the virus — had mutated in the patients, causing a hole in the body's ability to resist infection. They also found that at least 15 percent of people had the wrong antibodies in their bodies that attacked interferons, impairing their function in the immune response.
Casanova said that while his research team has become accustomed to similar findings, it is unusual for them to make up such a large percentage of cases, "which is a surprise for everyone in my field," suggesting that perhaps scientists could test these antibodies in people with other weaknesses, such as the elderly, to understand people's risk of developing serious diseases once they contract COVID-19.
03
Genes play an important and complex role in the fight against COVID-19
But the problem is not so simple. Genetics is complex, especially as epidemics evolve with more factors. First, the role of many factors such as vaccination and pre-infection in the fight against the virus has made it more difficult to investigate why some people do not contract COVID-19.
More challengingly, people's behavior and environment will also affect the way their genes work, which in turn will affect their ability to fight COVID-19.
Even if we have a deep understanding of the genes of a disease, there is still a long way to explore from the research results to the marketing of drugs.
What's more, genetic mutations can have both positive and negative effects, such as the same genetic variant that increases the risk of severe COVID-19 can prevent another serious disease – it reduces a person's risk of HIV infection by 27%.
But it has to be said that this is an opportunity to promote the development of related fields. Experts believe that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought together two groups that have not worked closely enough together – in the fields of genetics and infectious diseases. And that's just the beginning.
"Our genetic code is just where it all starts. Just like Zitz, whose neighbor has healed and his wife is still uninfected, is it also because of their genes? Scientists may never know. Ramas wrote in the article.
Ultimately, our genes are just one part of the incredible story of this virus, which will continue to be told in the years to come.
Resources
3.https://xw.qq.com/cmsid/20220311A03OXR00?f=newdc
4.Why Do Some People Never Get Covid?. NYT
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