Hinds: Vaccines protect against effects of newly found gene mutation

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The Ministry of Health’s Epidemiology Division’s Technical Director, Dr Avery Hinds, assured that vaccines will protect people despite the recent discovery of a gene in people of South Asian or African-Caribbean lineage making them more susceptible to lung collapse after contracting COVID-19.

Commenting on the recent discovery, Dr Hinds was unable to say whether the trend was detected in Trinidad and Tobago- a country predominantly populated by the ethnicities found to have the high-risk gene.

“We don’t have any information that we’re seeing that the effect of that particular gene in our population. The data collection isn’t really set up to make that sort of determination,” he said.

Published in The Nature Genetics last week, the study conducted by University of Oxford scientists uncovered the version of the LZTFL1 gene that doubles the risk of lung failure and death from COVID-19. They say around 60 per cent of people from South Asian backgrounds and 15 per cent of people of European ancestry carry the high-risk version of the gene while only two per cent of people with African-Caribbean backgrounds carry it. It also estimates that 1.8 per cent of those with East Asian lineage have the genotype. The researchers believe the gene prevents the cells lining the airways and the lungs from responding to the virus properly which can lead to the collapse.

The team was led by Professors James Davies and Jim Hughes at the University of Oxford’s MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine.

Geneticist Dr Nicole Ramlachan said the high-risk version of the gene could be present in Trinibagonians of the ethnicities identified, however, she noted sequencing would be needed to confirm.

“Genetically we are all related based on race…in terms of the haplotypes, we share and so on because of the country of origin of our ancestors. That genotype will be most likely shared between Africans and specifically South/East Asians across the world demographic,” she said.

Haplotypes are a specific group of genes that are passed on from your ancestors.

Dr Ramlachan explained there are several other diseases in which certain ethnicities are more genetically prone.

“We see African-Americans in particular from the research that they’ve shown are higher risk for cancer, a higher risk for heart disease- those kinds of things. East Indians and South/East Asians tend to be at more high risk for cholesterol or diabetes. We have very specific genotypes that follow our country of origin,” she said.

Despite this possibility, Dr Hinds explained vaccination will help prevent infection and, therefore, reduce the risk of the disease exploiting the genetic vulnerability.

“Vaccination does what it can to improve your immune system’s ability to respond to an infection- whether the infection is viral or otherwise,” Dr Hinds said.

“The ability of the immune system to respond and the ability of the body, in general, to recover from illness also is affected by other genetic factors. So there will be a playoff/trade-off having particular genetics that are an additional risk for severe outcomes and having the vaccine onboard. One of the things the vaccine will do is reduce your risk of getting infected in the first place. So the vaccine will still help to risks of those outcomes by reducing your risk of becoming infected in the first place.”

The study’s lead researcher, Professor Davies also noted that vaccination will protect people from the outcome.

“Although we cannot change our genetics, our results show that the people with the higher risk gene are likely to particularly benefit from vaccination. Since the genetic signal affects the lung rather than the immune system it means that the increased risk should be cancelled out by the vaccine.”