Sixteen new genetic variants associated with severe Covid-19 have been identified by scientists taking part in the world’s biggest coronavirus gene study.
Patients can require extended hospital stays, with complications including blood clots, immune response and inflammation, and the study offers hopes for new treatments.
Researchers identified DNA differences that may explain why some people get more severely ill from coronavirus, and they also now know more about the virus than other conditions routinely seen in hospitals, such as sepsis and flu.
The GenOMICC consortium, a global collaboration led by University of Edinburgh, is the world's largest study of the genes involved in critical Covid-19 and included more than 57,000 people.
Sir Mark Caulfield, from Queen Mary University of London, said: "I think what we can say today is that these variants do denote people that are more likely to have a critical illness.
"And if we knew about them earlier in the course of their illness, we might be able to consider early intervention with some of the medicines we've been talking about, such as dexamethasone or others to try and prevent an adverse outcome."
The team found key differences in 16 genes in patients admitted to intensive care, compared with the DNA of the other groups.
They also confirmed the involvement of seven other genetic variations already associated with severe Covid-19 discovered in earlier studies from the same team.
The findings, published in scientific journal Nature, included how a single gene variant was enough to increase a patient’s risk of severe disease.
Experts suggest that while doctors might be able to make predictions about patients based on their genome, the technology is not yet there.
"These results explain why some people develop life-threatening Covid-19, while others get no symptoms at all,” said Professor Kenneth Baillie, the project's chief investigator.
"But more importantly, this gives us a deep understanding of the process of disease and is a big step forward in finding more effective treatments.”
"Covid-19 is showing us the way to tackle those problems in the future," he said.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
Moral education needed in a 'rapidly changing world'
Moral education lessons for young people is needed in a rapidly changing world, the head of the programme said.
Alanood Al Kaabi, head of programmes at the Education Affairs Office of the Crown Price Court - Abu Dhabi, said: "The Crown Price Court is fully behind this initiative and have already seen the curriculum succeed in empowering young people and providing them with the necessary tools to succeed in building the future of the nation at all levels.
"Moral education touches on every aspect and subject that children engage in.
"It is not just limited to science or maths but it is involved in all subjects and it is helping children to adapt to integral moral practises.
"The moral education programme has been designed to develop children holistically in a world being rapidly transformed by technology and globalisation."
Bio
Born in Dubai in 1994
Her father is a retired Emirati police officer and her mother is originally from Kuwait
She Graduated from the American University of Sharjah in 2015 and is currently working on her Masters in Communication from the University of Sharjah.
Her favourite film is Pacific Rim, directed by Guillermo del Toro
