Health Notes

Non peer-reviewed paper suggests link between COVID-19 and infections of pathways relevant to cancer

University of Bristol researchers discovered that four mutated genes that contribute to the development of cancer are potentially targeted by the virus

by Charlie Smith on April 6th, 2022 at 6:19 AM
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      Three researchers at the University of Bristol have raised a troubling prospect in a scientific paper that has not yet undergone peer review.

      Could there be any links between COVID-19 and cancer?

      There is already a growing number of peer-reviewed publications drawing connections between COVID-19 and, in a minority of cases, brain injuries, dementia, neuromuscular disorders, heart attacks, and organ failure.

      The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, has not been cited as a contributing factor to malignant tumours.

      However, the University of Bristol researchers—Pau Erola, Richard M. Martin, and Tom R. Gaunt—have applied "community detection algorithms and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) to identify cancer-relevant pathways that may be perturbed by SARS-CoV-2 infection".

      They did this with the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, which examines epidemiological datasets as part of its investigations into the relationship between risk factors and disease outcomes.

      "In lung tissue, the results showed that 4 oncogenes [mutated genes that contribute to the development of cancer] are potentially targeted by SARS-CoV-2 and 92 oncogenes interact with other human genes targeted by SARS-CoV-2," Erola, Martin, and Gaunt wrote. "We found evidence of potential SARS-CoV-2 interactions with Wnt and hippo signalling pathways, telomere maintenance, DNA replication, protein ubiquitination and mRNA splicing. Some of these pathways were potentially affected in multiple tissues."

      They cautioned in that the long-term implications of COVID-19 are still not known.

      The trio added that "our results point to the potential impact of infection on pathways relevant to cancer affecting cell proliferation, development and survival, favoring DNA degradation, preventing the repair of damaging events and impeding the translation of RNA into working proteins".

      "This highlights the need for further research to investigate whether such effects are transient or longer lasting," Pau, Martin, and Gaunt noted.

      Last year, Martin was named a National Institute of Health Research senior investigator. Erola is a senior research associate in bioinformatics. Gaunt is a professor of health and biomedical informatics

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