A new study published by French and American researchers shows that certain serious forms of coronavirus are linked to a genetic predisposition in patients.
If this work is accurate, it could make it possible to detect people at risk for severe disease upstream.
15% of severe forms of coronavirus are explained by a genetic predisposition.
This is shown by the work of a Franco-American team from the Imagine Institute in Paris and Rockefeller University in New York.
These would include genetic and immune abnormalities.
The researchers started from this hypothesis, already put forward, to then establish the genetic identity card of 1,700 patients around the world.
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A peculiarity emerged in the group of serious cases studied: patients carrying certain genetic mutations are unable to effectively activate a certain type of protein called "interferons".
Interferons, explains Jean-Laurent Casanova, who led this work, are nevertheless essential molecules to trigger the body's defense reaction in the event of an attack by a virus.
"These patients will produce little or no interferons. The virus will therefore replicate itself, infect other cells and several days later, other components of the immune system, in particular white blood cells, will try to do the job. the interferons didn't, "he says.
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But by then, it's already too late.
In these patients, the immune system is racing, triggering the famous cytokine storm which causes the deterioration of the state of health.
These findings should therefore make it possible, in the future, to better identify people at risk of severe disease.
This could also allow the development of new personalized treatments for this type of case.