Gene Variant Most Prevalent in Asian-Descent Populations Doubles Risk of Respiratory Failure from COVID-19

Scientists at Oxford University have found evidence that variation in a single gene, LZTFL1, doubles the risk of respiratory failure from COVID-19. Sixty percent of people with South Asian ancestry carry a genetic signal for this effect, partly explaining the excess deaths seen in some U.K. communities, and the impact of COVID-19 in the Indian subcontinent. The study was published in Nature Genetics , by a team lead by Professors James Davies and Jim Hughes at the University of Oxford's MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine. Previous work has identified a stretch of DNA on chromosome 3, the 3p21.31 region,…