Published 12:52 IST, June 18th 2020

European study links COVID-19 infection with patient’s blood type and genes

In European study published in the Journal of Medicine on June 17, researchers explain why some people get seriously ill with coronavirus and some don't.

World News
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A team of European scientists says that y have found two genetic variations that are likely to get very sick and die from coronavirus, while also establishing a link between COVID-19 disease and patient’s blood type. In a study published in New England Journal of Medicine on June 17, researchers explain why some people get seriously ill with coronavirus, while most patients are asymptomatic. Type A blood group patients have a higher risk of contracting vel coronavirus and might develop severe symptoms, while people with Type O blood have a lower risk and have mild symptoms usually, as per study.

Our genetic data confirm that blood group O is associated with a risk of acquiring Covid-19 that was lower than that in n-O blood groups, whereas blood group A was associated with a higher risk than n-A blood groups, researchers wrote in ir report.

Furr, y calculated that patients that tested positive to COVID-19 and had Type A blood were at 45% higher risk of contracting virus compared with or blood types. While patients with Type O blood were just 65% as likely to become infected collectively with or blood group patients.

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1,900 severely ill coronavirus patients observed

A professor of molecular medicine at University of Kiel in Germany, Andre Franke, lead author of study observed 1,900 severely ill coronavirus patients in Spain and Italy and compared m to 2,300 healthy individuals in a geme-wide association study. Scientists drafted an entire genetic map to find two DNA variations that were more common in patients severely ill with respiratory disease, as per research study. "We detected a vel susceptibility locus at a chromosome 3p21.31 gene cluster and confirmed a potential involvement of ABO blood-group system in Covid-19," researchers wrote in study. And two places in geme were linked with risk of developing respiratory failure, y added.

two genetic variations discovered by researchers could be associated with a person’s immune response. Cytokine storm — an overwhelming overreaction of immune system — has been held as a cause for increased inflammation and deadliest effect of coronavirus. A hematologist who is chairman of department of medicine at Medical College of Wisconsin, Dr. Roy Silverstein, was quoted as saying that genes that control blood type also affect structures called sugars on surfaces of cells, which in turn could affect ability of virus to infect those cells.