The study is the latest to suggest genetics may play a role in why some people are more vulnerable to the coronavirus than others.
People with a genetic mutation that increases the risk of dementia also have a greater chance of having severe Covid-19, researchers have revealed. The study is the latest to suggest genetics may play a role in why some people are more vulnerable to the coronavirus than others, and could help explain why people with dementia have been hard hit: dementia is one of the most common underlying health conditions among those who have died from Covid-19 in England and Wales. “It is not just age: this is an example of a specific gene variant causing vulnerability in some people,” said David Melzer, a professor of epidemiology and public health at Exeter University and a co-author of the study. Writing in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, Melzer and colleagues report how they analysed data from the UK Biobank, a research endeavour that has collected genetic and health data on 500,000 volunteers aged between 48 and 86. The team focused on a gene called ApoE – this gives rise to proteins involved in carrying fats around the body, and can exist in several forms. One such variant, called “e4”, is known to affect cholesterol levels and processes involved in inflammation, as well as increasing the risk of heart disease and dementia. The researchers found 9,022 of almost 383,000 Biobank participants of European ancestry studied had two copies of the e4 variant, while more than 223,000 had two copies of a variant called “e3”. The former, the team add, have a risk of dementia up to 14-fold higher than the latter. The team then looked at positive tests for Covid-19 between 16 March and 26 April when testing for the coronavirus was largely carried out in hospitals, suggesting the cases were severe.
The results reveal 37 people who tested positive for Covid-19 had two copies of the e4 variant of ApoE, while 401 had two copies of the e3 variant. After taking into account various factors, including age and sex, the team say people with two e4 variants had more than double the risk of severe Covid-19 than those with two e3 variants.
Melzer said the findings were not down to people with two e4 variants being more likely to be living in a care home – settings that have been hard hit by Covid-19 – since the association remained even when the team excluded participants with a diagnosis of dementia. None of the Covid-19 positive participants with two e4 variants of the ApoE gene had a dementia diagnosis. Fiona Carragher, a director of research and influencing at Alzheimer’s Society, said people with dementia and their families were desperately worried, adding the government must take urgent action to protect people with dementia. But, she said, more research was needed to delve into the possible link between the e4 variant of ApoE and severe Covid-19. Nick Note: this might be a deep dive for most of you. But i am a BIG believer in knowing your enemy. It would be a good idea to suck it up and listen to the video. I want to keep you healthy and make you wealthy. And the only way i keep my job as your trusted adviser is if i preform to YOUR satisfaction. . But you got to do your part, We will get through this if if everyone does their job. I believe its a proven fact that Government is feeding us full of shit as a Thanksgiving Turkey. Masks work, masks don’t work. need to test, no need to test, lock down no lock down…. SHIT! The one i Love is the US has the lowest infection rates in the world when in fact its the highest! The cumming greatest lie of them all will be when they announce a vaccine. ITS IMPOSSIBLE IT WILL NOT WORK. Towards the end of the video above is some good information. Bottom line their will be no cure and their sure as hell will be no vaccine. Just like the common viruses (Rhino Virus, SARS, Mars and Avian flu A and Avian Flu B) the family of corona viruses mutate very quickly ending the vaccines useless. Now with the yearly flue vaccine they get it right a whopping 20% of the time. And is a simple virus that incubates at most a mater of days and mutates at glacier speeds compared to this newest monster that escaped out of the Bio labs in China. Now here is where you must pay attention the coronavirus mutates 30 times faster, is 100 times more contagious, 10 times more deadly than anything we have seen in the past. AND AND AND it incubates for 15 days before symptoms show up and in that time your a super spreader.