Where does the vulnerability of patients suffering from a severe form of Covid-19 come from, when the infection remains silent or mild in a majority of people?
In two scientific articles published yesterday in the American journal
Science
, the Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases of the Imagine Institute, located at Necker Hospital, provides a first element of answer to this essential question.
Its studies show, in nearly 14% of patients hospitalized for serious Covid-19, a defect in the production or action of interferons, which participate in the first-line immune defense against viruses.
This discovery could eventually lead to the screening of these patients, and to an evolution of the treatments offered to them.
Read also:
Young adults can also have severe forms
"As early as February, we hypothesized that the switch to a severe form was not the result of bad luck, but the result of genetic and immunological determinism"
, indicates Professor Jean-Laurent
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