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TORONTO: Increased levels of a protein, which humans inherited from Neanderthals, are associated with reduced disease severity in Covid-19 patients, study finds that could lead to development of new therapies against new coronavirus infection.
The research, published in the journal Nature Medicine on Friday, noted that the OAS1 protein is linked to less severe disease requiring ventilation and reduced mortality in Covid-19 patients, and may help develop potential therapies to treat people. infected with the virus.
“Our analysis shows that OAS1 has a protective effect against the sensitivity and severity of Covid-19,” said Brent Richards, lead author of the study from the Lady Davis Institute (LDI) in Canada.
“This is a very exciting development in the race to identify potential therapies to treat patients, as there are already therapies in preclinical development that stimulate OAS1 and could be explored for their effect against SARS-CoV-2 infection, ”said Richards.
In the study, scientists explored detectable proteins in the blood as a potential drug target against Covid-19.
However, the researchers said they faced several hurdles in determining which proteins play a causal role in disease progression and which were influenced by Covid-19 itself or other confounding factors.
Applying the latest technology to isolate and measure hundreds of circulating proteins at once, along with genetic analyzes, they found that increased levels of OAS1 were associated with reduced mortality or ventilation from Covid. -19, hospitalizations and sensitivity in up to 14,134 cases of Covid-19 1.2 million checks.
When they measured the levels of this protein in 504 patients with different Covid-19 results, they found that its increased levels in post-infection patients were linked to protection against very severe Covid-19, hospitalization and sensitivity.
“The protective effect was particularly strong, so we observed a 50 percent decrease in the likelihood of very severe Covid-19 per standard deviation of increasing circulating levels of OAS1,” said Sirui Zhou, co -author of the LDI study.
“Interestingly, for non-African people, this protective effect is likely inherited from a Neanderthal-derived form of OAS1 called p46,” Zhou added.
Scientists believe that this form of OAS1 likely arose in people of European descent through crossbreeding with Neanderthals tens of thousands of years ago.
They said the protein is now detectable in more than thirty percent of people of European descent.
According to the researchers, this form of protein would probably have served as protection against previous pandemics.
They call for further studies on drugs that trigger increased OAS1 levels for their effect on Covid-19 outcomes.
[ad_2]
The research, published in the journal Nature Medicine on Friday, noted that the OAS1 protein is linked to less severe disease requiring ventilation and reduced mortality in Covid-19 patients, and may help develop potential therapies to treat people. infected with the virus.
“Our analysis shows that OAS1 has a protective effect against the sensitivity and severity of Covid-19,” said Brent Richards, lead author of the study from the Lady Davis Institute (LDI) in Canada.
“This is a very exciting development in the race to identify potential therapies to treat patients, as there are already therapies in preclinical development that stimulate OAS1 and could be explored for their effect against SARS-CoV-2 infection, ”said Richards.
In the study, scientists explored detectable proteins in the blood as a potential drug target against Covid-19.
However, the researchers said they faced several hurdles in determining which proteins play a causal role in disease progression and which were influenced by Covid-19 itself or other confounding factors.
Applying the latest technology to isolate and measure hundreds of circulating proteins at once, along with genetic analyzes, they found that increased levels of OAS1 were associated with reduced mortality or ventilation from Covid. -19, hospitalizations and sensitivity in up to 14,134 cases of Covid-19 1.2 million checks.
When they measured the levels of this protein in 504 patients with different Covid-19 results, they found that its increased levels in post-infection patients were linked to protection against very severe Covid-19, hospitalization and sensitivity.
“The protective effect was particularly strong, so we observed a 50 percent decrease in the likelihood of very severe Covid-19 per standard deviation of increasing circulating levels of OAS1,” said Sirui Zhou, co -author of the LDI study.
“Interestingly, for non-African people, this protective effect is likely inherited from a Neanderthal-derived form of OAS1 called p46,” Zhou added.
Scientists believe that this form of OAS1 likely arose in people of European descent through crossbreeding with Neanderthals tens of thousands of years ago.
They said the protein is now detectable in more than thirty percent of people of European descent.
According to the researchers, this form of protein would probably have served as protection against previous pandemics.
They call for further studies on drugs that trigger increased OAS1 levels for their effect on Covid-19 outcomes.
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