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The 12 biggest health care stories of the year. (Theyâre not all about Covid-19.)
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The new coronavirus dominated news headlines this year. But what were the biggest health care stories of the year? Advisory Board experts round up their top picks for the year including three that are not related to Covid-19. Vice President, Life Sciences and Ecosystem Research
It s hard to think of a bigger story of 2020 than the coronavirus vaccine. With the entire world watching, pharmaceutical companies revolutionized the vaccine development process, and less than a year later we have not one but two authorized vaccine s that demonstrated well over 90% efficacy in Phase III trials. This can only be described as a remarkable scientific achievement.
Genetic analysis reveals novel traits associated with COVID-19 severity
Researchers in the United States have conducted genetic correlation studies revealing novel traits associated with the development of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The team’s analysis validated previous epidemiology-based findings that health conditions such as hypertension and type 2 diabetes are associated with more severe COVID-19.
However, the researchers also discovered novel risk factors that have not previously been reported by epidemiology-based studies.
For example, they found that lower levels of educational attainment correlated with severe COVID-19 and hospitalization.
The team – from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania – also found that opioid use and panic attacks appeared to be correlated with severe COVID 19 and hospitalization
COVID-19 severity could be linked to genetic variance
The extent of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is staggering. Among the worst aspects of the disease is the immense uncertainty about the clinical course, with some developing severe or critical COVID-19, and often dying of it, while others remain asymptomatic or have only mild symptoms throughout. A new preprint appearing on the
medRxiv server in December 2020 describes some potentially important genetic factors in the host that may shape the clinical symptoms and signs of the disease.
Genetic loci linked to severity in earlier studies
A recent study reported the outcome of a genome-wide association study (GWAS) that showed two genetic loci possibly linked to increased susceptibility to the disease process. The first was on chromosome 3, encoding a number of genes that may have a functional role in COVID-19 disease. The second was on chromosome 9, which also harbors the ABO blood group. A second recent study
The conclusion remains tentative. Other groups looking in genetic databases for factors that influence COVID-19 severity have not flagged the
DPP4 gene. But the work is provocative because it suggests some diabetes drugs, which target the cell surface protein, could help treat the disease. “We want to put this finding out there quickly so people can systematically test if DPP4 could be a [therapeutic] target in patients with COVID,” says study co-author Svante Pääbo, an evolutionary geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
The preprint “adds to the evidence … that DPP4 may really play a role in the infection for SARS-CoV-2,” says virologist Jianhong Lu of China’s Central South University, who wasn’t involved in the new work. In June, he and colleagues reported in