Study finds no link in genetic risk factor and severe COVID among South Asians

A study, based on data from India and Bangladesh, has revealed that biggest genetic risk factor for COVID-19 severity in the European population may not increase susceptibility to the disease in South Asians.

Scientists have questioned since the beginning of the pandemic why some people had more severe symptoms from COVID-19 than others.

Variations in a specific segment of DNA have previously been linked to severe COVID-19 infection and hospitalisation in a European population study.

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This DNA segment is present in 50% of South Asians as compared to 16% of Europeans.

A team of scientists, led by Kumarasamy Thangaraj, from CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad and Professor Gyaneshwer Chaubey, from Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, analysed the role of this DNA segment in determining COVID-19 outcomes among the South Asian population.

The finding, published in the journal Scientific Reports on Friday, concluded that the genetic variants responsible for COVID-19 severity among Europeans may not play a role in disease susceptibility among South Asians.

“In this study, we have compared infection and case fatality rates with South Asian genomic data over three different timelines during the pandemic. We have especially looked into a large number of populations from India and Bangladesh,” Thangaraj.

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“Our result reiterates the unique genetic origin of South Asian populations. A dedicated genome-wide association study on South Asian COVID-19 patients is the need of time for us in the Asian sub-continent,” said Chaubey, first author of the study.

The research also suggests that the genetic variants correlated with COVID-19 outcomes differ significantly among caste and tribal populations of Bangladesh.

“Scientists working in the area of population studies should be more cautious to interpret their findings by differentiating caste and tribal populations, more explicitly so in the Bangladeshi population,” said Professor George van Driem, from The University of Bern in Switzerland.

“With growing data, it is becoming quite clear that there are several factors including genetics, immunity and the lifestyle are the contributing factor for COVID-19 susceptibility,” said Driem, a co-author of the study.

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Other participants of this study included researchers from Dhaka University, Bangladesh, Forensic Science Laboratory in Madhya Pradesh, and Birla Institute of Scientific Research, Jaipur.