Unraveling the Mystery of Asymptomatic COVID: Insights from Genetic Studies

A new study published in the scientific journal Nature suggests that people with a specific version of a gene known as HLA-B*15:01 are more likely to experience asymptomatic COVID-19 infections. Researchers recruited 30,000 individuals with European ancestry and found that those with the HLA-B*15:01 gene were over twice as likely to remain asymptomatic compared to those without the gene. If a person had two copies of the gene, they were 8½ times more likely to remain asymptomatic. The study also suggests that this gene may have provided some level of preexisting immunity to the pandemic coronavirus due to previous exposure to seasonal coronaviruses. Further research is needed to explore the impact of genetics on asymptomatic infections in people of non-European ancestries.