Toronto, February 27th
Increased levels of protein, obtained from neanderthals, have been linked to reduced disease in COVID-19 patients, according to a study that could lead to the development of a new treatment against the new coronavirus disease.
The research, published in the journal Nature’s cure on Friday, the protein OAS1 was noted to be linked to a less severe disease that requires ventilation and reduce mortality among COVID-19 patients, and may help develop potential therapies be there to treat those infected with the virus.
“Our analysis shows evidence that OAS1 has a protective effect against the vulnerability and depth of COVID-19,” explained Brent Richards, lead author of a study from the Lady Davis Institute (LDI) in Canada. this is very interesting in the race to identify treatments that may treat patients because there are already treatments in preclinical development that stimulate OAS1 and that could be studied for their impact against SARS-CoV-2 infection, “Richards said.
In the study, the scientists studied proteins found in the blood as a potential drug target of COVID-19 resistance.
However, the researchers stated that they faced a number of barriers in determining which proteins play a causal role in disease progression, and which were influenced by COVID-19 itself or other complex factors. . Using the latest technology to isolate and quantify hundreds of circulating proteins simultaneously, along with genetic analyzes, they found that an increase in OAS1 levels was associated with COVID death or ventilation -19 reduced, hospitalized, and vulnerability in up to 14,134 COVID-19 cases and 1.2 million controls.
When they measured levels of this protein in 504 patients with different COVID-19 outcomes, they found that its elevated levels in post-infection patients were associated with very poor, hospitalized, and susceptible COVID-19 resistance. .
“The protective effect was particularly significant until we saw a 50 percent reduction in the incidence of COVID-19 malignancies per level in OAS1 circulation rates,” said Sirui Zhou, co-author of a study from LDI. “Interestingly, for non-Africans, this protective effect appears to be inherited from the Neanderthal form of OAS1 called p46,” Zhou said.
Scientists believe that this type of OAS1 appears to have appeared in humans of European ancestry through breeding with Neanderthals thousands of years ago. They said the protein is now found in more than thirty percent of people of European descent. According to the researchers, this form of the protein may have been a protection against earlier pandemics.
They want more studies on drugs that stimulate greater OAS1 levels for their effect on COVID-19 results. PTI