Nasir, J. (2020) The COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative, a global initiative to elucidate the role of host genetic factors in susceptibility and severity of the SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic. European journal of human genetics : EJHG. 28, pp. 715-718. 1018-4813.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Abstract: | The COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis creating severe disruptions across the economy and health system. Insights into how to better understand and treat COVID-19 are desperately needed. Early studies have focused on the clinical characteristics [1,2,3], epidemiology [1, 4, 5], and genomic characterization [6,7,8] of SARS-CoV-2 infection. These studies have also highlighted the value and importance of transparent data sharing across countries, which have enabled the live tracking of the disease widespread worldwide [9, 10]. The role of host genetics in impacting susceptibility and severity of COVID-19 has been less studied. Previous work has supported the role of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) in susceptibility [11] and severity [12] for several viral infections. Moreover, a synonymous variant in the IFN-induced transmembrane protein-3 gene has been reported to cause severe clinical outcomes in patients infected with H7N9 and H1N1 influenza viruses [13, 14], although results did not reach established P value thresholds (P < 5 × 10−8). In addition, candidate variant studies have suggested host factors that are critical for severe disease in other coronavirus infections, such as infections due to the related SARS-CoV [15]. Given the importance and urgency of exploring the role of the host genome in conjunction with COVID-19 clinical and genomic variability, and the recognition that this can only be achieved with the combined effort of the scientific community, we launched the ‘COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative’. This initiative brings together the human genetics community to generate, share, and analyze data to learn the genetic determinants of COVID-19 susceptibility, severity, and outcomes. Such discoveries could help to identify individuals at unusually high or low risk, generate hypotheses for drug repurposing, and contribute to global knowledge of the biology of SARS-CoV-2 infection and disease. The initiative has three main goals: 1. Provide an environment to foster the sharing of resources to facilitate COVID-19 host genetics research (e.g., protocols, questionnaires). 2. Organize analytical activities across studies to identify genetic determinants of COVID-19 susceptibility and severity. 3. Provide a platform to share the results from such activities, as well as the individual-level data where possible, to benefit the broader scientific community. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | /dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/good_health_and_well_being |
| Creators: | Nasir, Jamal |
| Faculties, Divisions and Institutes: | ?? ASSCI ?? |
| Date: | 1 June 2020 |
| Date Type: | Publication |
| Page Range: | pp. 715-718 |
| Journal or Publication Title: | European journal of human genetics : EJHG |
| Volume: | 28 |
| Language: | English |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41431-020-0636-6 |
| ISSN: | 1018-4813 |
| Status: | Published / Disseminated |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Related URLs: | |
| URI: | http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/15766 |
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