Alu retrotransposons and COVID-19 susceptibility and morbidity

Manci Li; Luca Schifanella; Peter A Larsen

doi:10.1186/s40246-020-00299-9

Alu retrotransposons and COVID-19 susceptibility and morbidity

Manci Li, Luca Schifanella, Peter A Larsen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 has spread rapidly across the world and is negatively impacting the global human population. COVID-19 patients display a wide variety of symptoms and clinical outcomes, including those attributed to genetic ancestry. Alu retrotransposons have played an important role in human evolution, and their variants influence host response to viral infection. Intronic Alus regulate gene expression through several mechanisms, including both genetic and epigenetic pathways. With respect to SARS-CoV-2, an intronic Alu within the ACE gene is hypothesized to be associated with COVID-19 susceptibility and morbidity. Here, we review specific Alu polymorphisms that are of particular interest when considering host response to SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially polymorphic Alu insertions in genes associated with immune response and coagulation/fibrinolysis cascade. We posit that additional research focused on Alu-related pathways could yield novel biomarkers capable of predicting clinical outcomes as well as patient-specific treatment strategies for COVID-19 and related infectious diseases.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	2
Pages (from-to)	2
Journal	Human Genomics
Volume	15
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/s40246-020-00299-9
State	Published - Jan 4 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank the University of Minnesota COVID-19 Rapid Response Clinical Grants program for funding provided to ML and PAL in support of ongoing molecular research focused on the mechanisms reviewed herein. Dr. Roxanne Larsen provided helpful comments that improved this manuscript. Figs. and were created with BioRender ( https://biorender.com/ ).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).

Keywords

ACE
COVID-19
F13B
Human evolution
PGR
PLAT
SARS-CoV-2

PubMed: MeSH publication types

Journal Article
Review

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1186/s40246-020-00299-9License: CC BY

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abstract = "SARS-CoV-2 has spread rapidly across the world and is negatively impacting the global human population. COVID-19 patients display a wide variety of symptoms and clinical outcomes, including those attributed to genetic ancestry. Alu retrotransposons have played an important role in human evolution, and their variants influence host response to viral infection. Intronic Alus regulate gene expression through several mechanisms, including both genetic and epigenetic pathways. With respect to SARS-CoV-2, an intronic Alu within the ACE gene is hypothesized to be associated with COVID-19 susceptibility and morbidity. Here, we review specific Alu polymorphisms that are of particular interest when considering host response to SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially polymorphic Alu insertions in genes associated with immune response and coagulation/fibrinolysis cascade. We posit that additional research focused on Alu-related pathways could yield novel biomarkers capable of predicting clinical outcomes as well as patient-specific treatment strategies for COVID-19 and related infectious diseases.",

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AB - SARS-CoV-2 has spread rapidly across the world and is negatively impacting the global human population. COVID-19 patients display a wide variety of symptoms and clinical outcomes, including those attributed to genetic ancestry. Alu retrotransposons have played an important role in human evolution, and their variants influence host response to viral infection. Intronic Alus regulate gene expression through several mechanisms, including both genetic and epigenetic pathways. With respect to SARS-CoV-2, an intronic Alu within the ACE gene is hypothesized to be associated with COVID-19 susceptibility and morbidity. Here, we review specific Alu polymorphisms that are of particular interest when considering host response to SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially polymorphic Alu insertions in genes associated with immune response and coagulation/fibrinolysis cascade. We posit that additional research focused on Alu-related pathways could yield novel biomarkers capable of predicting clinical outcomes as well as patient-specific treatment strategies for COVID-19 and related infectious diseases.

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Alu retrotransposons and COVID-19 susceptibility and morbidity

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

PubMed: MeSH publication types

UN SDGs

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