UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Variants in ACE2 and TMPRSS2 Genes Are Not Major Determinants of COVID-19 Severity in UK Biobank Subjects

Curtis, D; (2021) Variants in ACE2 and TMPRSS2 Genes Are Not Major Determinants of COVID-19 Severity in UK Biobank Subjects. Human Heredity , 85 (2) pp. 66-68. 10.1159/000515200. Green open access

[thumbnail of Variants in ACE2 and TMPRSS2 Genes Are Not Major Determinants of COVID-19 Severity in UK Biobank Subjects.pdf]
Preview
Text
Variants in ACE2 and TMPRSS2 Genes Are Not Major Determinants of COVID-19 Severity in UK Biobank Subjects.pdf - Published Version

Download (103kB) | Preview

Abstract

It is plausible that variants in the ACE2 and TMPRSS2 genes might contribute to variation in COVID-19 severity and that these could explain why some people become very unwell whereas most do not. Exome sequence data was obtained for 49,953 UK Biobank subjects, of whom 82 had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and could be presumed to have severe disease. A weighted burden analysis was carried out using SCOREASSOC to determine whether there were differences between these cases and the other sequenced subjects in the overall burden of rare, damaging variants in ACE2 or TMPRSS2. There were no statistically significant differences in weighted burden scores between cases and controls for either gene. There were no individual DNA sequence variants with a markedly different frequency between cases and controls. Whether there are small effects on severity, or whether there might be rare variants with major effect sizes, would require studies in much larger samples. Genetic variants affecting the structure and function of the ACE2 and TMPRSS2 proteins are not the main explanation for why some people develop severe symptoms in response to infection with SARS-CoV-2. This research was conducted using the UK Biobank Resource.

Type: Article
Title: Variants in ACE2 and TMPRSS2 Genes Are Not Major Determinants of COVID-19 Severity in UK Biobank Subjects
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1159/000515200
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1159/000515200
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2021 The Author(s) Published by S. Karger AG, Basel. This is an Open Access article published under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
Keywords: ACE2, TMPRSS2, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10128859
Downloads since deposit
37Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item