My DNA and COVID-19: What's My Risk?

Written by Dr. Brandon Colby, MD, a medical expert specializing in personalized preventive medicine and clinical genomics.

Your DNA and COVID-19

COVID-19 has had an extraordinarily wide range of impact from person to person: one individual can have mild symptoms while another of the same age can experience a serious, life-threatening infection requiring hospitalization. Understanding why this variation exists has been a major focus of genetic research.

Sequencing focused on what it does best: translating genetic research into clear solutions for better health. The team reviewed all available coronavirus-related genetic research and applied its expertise in creating genetic analysis for conditions such as heart disease and cancer to the coronavirus.

Published, peer-reviewed genetic research identifies specific genetic variants associated with either susceptibility to coronavirus infection or risk of an infection progressing to severe illness. Based on this research, Sequencing developed the Coronavirus DNA Health Report to make this information accessible and actionable.

The Science Behind Genetic Assessment of Coronavirus Risk

The genetic analysis used by the Coronavirus DNA Health Report is based on more than 20 peer-reviewed, published genetic association studies performed by scientists throughout the world. All of these are included as references within the report.

The current coronavirus strain, SARS-CoV-2, shares 86% of its genome with SARS-CoV-1, the strain responsible for the 2003 outbreak. Because the two strains are so similar, the team curated all available genetic studies on both CoV-1 and CoV-2 and considered them in aggregate, eliminating any genetic association that failed a follow-up validation study. What remained was more than 20 genetic association studies covering 15 genes.

These studies identified genetic variants with a significant impact on either coronavirus susceptibility (how the virus initially infects human cells) or severity (how the body responds to the infection). Research has found, for example, that genetic variants within the ACE2 gene, which encodes a receptor found in abundance in cells of the lungs and mouth, may affect the virus's ability to infect a person.

The analysis was used to create genetic assessment for two main risks associated with coronavirus:

• Susceptibility to infection
• Risk of infection progressing to severe, potentially life-threatening illness

The analysis can process genetic data from a wide range of DNA tests, including genotyping microarrays from companies such as 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage, and FamilyTreeDNA, as well as genome sequencing data.

About the Author

Dr. Brandon Colby MD is a US physician specializing in the personalized prevention of disease through the use of genomic technologies. He is an expert in DNA testing, genetic analysis, and precision medicine. Dr. Colby is the founder of Sequencing and the author of Outsmart Your Genes.

Dr. Colby holds an MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, an MBA from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, and a degree in Genetics with Honors from the University of Michigan. He is an Affiliate Specialist of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG), an Associate of the American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM), and a member of the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC).