JAMA: New Discovery! Dementia genes may increase the risk of developing severe COVID-19 in individuals!

, June 5, 2020 //BiovalleyBIOON/ -- In a study published in the international journalJAMA, scientists from the University of Exeter and others found that having a faulty gene associated with dementia doubles the risk of COVID-19 in individual
sAfter data from theof the biosample library, they found high-risk, severe COVID-19 infection in European-born participants carrying two wrong copies of the APOE gene, with one in 36 people carrying two defects of the APOE gene, which increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease by 14 times and increases the risk of heart diseasePicture Source: CC0 Public Domain
The researchers said carrying these genetic mutations doubled the risk of COVID-19, even in people who were not suffering from these diseases, after researchers found that people with dementia were three times more likely to develop severe COVID-19, but they were not one of the health-based protective tissues advertised as an increased risk effectIt may be due to exposure to the high prevalence of the virus in nursing homes, but the researchers note thatgeneticfactors may also play an important role, with people carrying the APOE genotype (e4e4) at a double risk of developing severe COVID-19 compared to those who carry the APOE genotype (e3e3)most people of European descent had not been exposed to the virus, in the article, 2.36 percent of individuals of European descent carried the APOE e4e4 defect gene, while 5.13 percent of COVID-19-positive patients carried the gene mutation, indicating that carrying the e4e4 defect gene doubled the risk of individuals compared to e3e3Researcher Dr Chia-Ling Kuo said: 'We are very excited about the results because now we can shed light on how defective genes induce the body to become sensitive to COVID-19, which may help develop new therapies, and this study is so important that the inevitable risk of disease increases as the body ages, in fact, it may be due to specific biological differences, but also to help explain why some active people are able to live to 100 years or more, and some people die at age 60.'Current studies have shown that people with dementia are also at higher risk of COVID-19, suggesting that the high risk may not be just due
to dementia, aging or weakness of the body, or exposure to viruses; (BioValleyBioon.com) original origins: Lindsay A Farrer, , PhD; L Adrienne Cupples, PhD; Jonathan L Haines, PhD; et al, Effects of Age, Sex, and Ethnicity on the Association Of The Apolipoprotein E Genotype and Alzheimer's Disease , JAMA (2011) doi: 10.1001/jama.1997.035550160069041