Epidemiology and Genetics of Susceptibility to COVID-19 Infection

感染急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2型(SARS-CoV-2)会导致被称为冠状病毒病2019(新冠肺炎)的传染病综合征。SARS-CoV-2最初于2019年底在武汉中国描述，此后在世界各地传播，导致2019-2020年新冠肺炎大流行。虽然许多感染SARS-CoV-2的人可能症状轻微或很少，但也有一些人患有危及生命的疾病，包括严重的肺炎和多器官衰竭。截至2020年5月12日，美国已有1,342,594例患者和80,820人死于新冠肺炎(https://cdc.gov).这一约6%的死亡率和缺乏有效的治疗或预防措施表明迫切需要了解与严重新冠肺炎病风险相关的因素。不管实际的严重疾病和死亡率如何，很明显，全球将有大量的严重病例，迫切需要管理策略。这是一个多学科合作项目，主要目的是了解为什么一些新冠肺炎感染者有轻微的临床症状，而另一些人则患有非常严重的疾病，导致呼吸衰竭、多器官衰竭和死亡。这个项目的多个目标利用癌症流行病学和遗传学部门科学家的广泛专业知识，NCI 1)确定与新冠肺炎感染风险和结果相关的常见和罕见的生殖系遗传变异；2)确定其他与新冠肺炎感染风险和结果相关的生物标记物；3)表征共病情况，包括当前或以前的癌症对新冠肺炎感染和结果的贡献；4)进行描述性流行病学研究，旨在了解新冠肺炎对公众健康和疾病的人群水平后果；5)确定最佳检测策略，以检测和监测人群中的新冠肺炎；和6)尽可能快地存储和共享数据

Infection by the acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) results in the infectious disease syndrome known as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). SARS-CoV-2 was originally described in late 2019 in Wuhan, China and has since spread throughout the world causing the 2019-2020 COVID-19 pandemic. While many individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection may have mild or few symptoms, others have life threatening illness including severe pneumonia and multi-organ failure. As of May 12, 2020, there have been 1,342,594 cases and 80,820 deaths in the United States due to COVID-19 (https://cdc.gov). This approximately 6% death rate and lack of effective treatment or prevention measures illustrates the urgent need to understand factors associated with risk of severe COVID-19 disease. Irrespective of the actual rate of severe disease and death, it is clear that there will be enormous numbers of severe cases worldwide and management strategies are desperately needed.This is a multi-disciplinary collaborative project with the primary aim of understanding why some individuals with COVID-19 infection have mild clinical symptoms, while others have very severe disease resulting in respiratory failure, multi-organ failure, and death. The multiple aims of this project utilize the wide-ranging expertise of scientists in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, NCI1) Identify common and rare germline genetic variants associated with risk of COVID-19 infection and outcomes; 2) Identify other biomarkers associated with risk of COVID-19 infection and outcomes; 3) Characterize the contribution of co-morbid conditions, including current or prior cancer to COVID-19 infection and outcomes; 4) Conduct descriptive epidemiology studies aimed at understanding the population-level consequences of COVID-19 on public health and disease; 5) Identify optimal testing strategies to detect and monitor COVID-19 in populations; and 6) Deposit and share data as fast as possible