Nature: Bioinformatics found a gene - risk factor for a "long Covid"

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Nature magazine reports the first full -genomic study in which a gene was discovered - a risk factor for a long Covid.

Bioinformatics have collected a full -genomic data in 6450 people from 16 different countries. All these people were sick with a long covid. Genetic data of more than a million other research participants were used to control. Scientists have found a certain section of the genome, which is associated with a “long covid” increased 1.6 times increased by 1.6 times. This piece of DNA is located next to the FOXP4 genome, which is active in the lungs and other organs. The DNA sequence associated with the “long covid” is also associated with the higher activity of the FOXP4 gene in the lungs.

“ Long Covid ” is a long-term painful condition after an acute acute covid-19 infection, characterized by a large number of (more than 200) symptoms, among which: poor concentration and complexity with thinking (“fog in the head”), interfering with constant fatigue, headache, dizziness, and storage, breathing, and pain in the chest.

Scientists have long been analyzing a genetic predisposition to various manifestations of Covid, in particular to the increased risk of the severe course of the disease. This search mainly included the genes of the immune system that allowed the Covid virus to enter the cells. The same Foxp4 gene, as was clarified in earlier studies, is also associated with a more severe course of the acute phase. He was associated with lung cancer. Its influence on the “long covid” is more strongly than on the severity of the course of infection, so the increase in the risk of a “long Covid” cannot be explained only by the severity of the underlying disease.

Studies of the genetic predisposition to the “long Covid”, as Nature experts are sure, will be better to understand the causes of this complex and multifactorial disease - as a result, doctors will probably be able to better prevent a “long covid”.