EXPERTS from the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research have announced new findings into the body's response to Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2).
They say the findings "shed new light" on why some people are "naturally more resistant" to the infection — and claim the work could help predict how coronavirus may adapt to overcome this resistance in the future.
The findings relate to a version of the OAS1 gene that potentially inhibits SARS-CoV-2. Some people, the team found, have a version of this gene which does not detect the infection. But in others, the gene seeks out the invading virus, which replicates inside tiny fat-coated sacks, to "sound the alarm".
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Scientists found the addition of a single fat molecule to a protein gives OAS1 that power. This "prenylated" version of the gene was found to be associated with protection from severe Covid-19 in hospitalised patients. The teams says this suggests it's a "major component" of a protective response that helped many people avoid the worst of the virus.
Meanwhile, hospital patients with the non-protective fom of OAS1 were found to be 1.6 times more likely to require intensive care or die from the virus.
Almost 500 people were included in the work.
Additionally, the scientists also found that the protective gene was removed from horseshoe bats, which are thought to be the source of the pandemic, 55 million years ago. That means SARS-CoV-2 has never before had to adapt to evade this natural defence.
And it's thought that the billions of people estimated to lack the protective gene could make humans especially vulnerable to the impact of coronaviruses from this mammal species.
Virologist Sam Wilson, of the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, commented: "We know viruses adapt, and even SARS-CoV-2 has likely adapted to replicate in the animal reservoirs in which it circulates. Cross-species transmission to humans exposed the virus SARS-CoV-2 to a new repertoire of antiviral defences, some of which SARS-CoV-2 may not know how to evade.
"What our study shows us is that the coronavirus that caused the SARS outbreak in 2003 learned to evade prenylated OAS1.
"If SARS-CoV-2 variants learn the same trick, they could be substantially more pathogenic and transmissible in unvaccinated populations. This reinforces the need to continually monitor the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants."
The study is published in the journal Science.
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