Gene associated with autoimmune illness may protect carriers from COVID-19

In findings published Thursday in PLOS Genetics, researchers from King’s College London report a mysterious new balance between wolf and bug: A gene associated with increased risk of the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) may protect carriers from severe COVID-19.

The research team performed a meta-analysis of three genome-wide association studies performed on Europeans. They found several sites associated with both SLE and severe COVID-19. The two with the tightest relationships were TYK2, which affects the production of interferon, and CLEC1A, which encodes a lectin involved in resistance to fungi and in cell-cell communication. Individuals with a mutated TYK2 were at greater risk of SLE but lower risk of severe COVID. Individuals with a mutated CLEC1A were at great risk of both severe COVID-19 and fungal infection.

The authors described their findings as “an exciting result made possible by the large genetic studies in COVID-19 and Lupus, and opens the door to our understanding of how the biology of the immune system is calibrated to protect us against infection from viruses and other infectious agents, but at the risk of developing autoimmune disease.”

Read the full text of the study in PLOS Genetics.

Wang Y, Guga S, Wu K, Khaw Z, Tzoumkas K, Tombleson P, et al. (2022) COVID-19 and systemic lupus erythematosus genetics: A balance between autoimmune disease risk and protection against infection. PLoS Genet 18(11): e1010253. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1010253