Genome-wide association study of long COVID
Ollila, Hanna M.
- 1Helsingin Yliopisto
- 2University of California, San Francisco
- 3Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP)
- 4SANO GENETICS LIMITED
- 5Instituto Nacional de la Nutrición Salvador Zubiran
- 6Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- 7Broad Institute
- 8Universitätsklinikum Bonn
- 9MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit
- 10Faculty of Medicine
- 11King's College London
- 12Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
- 13Helix
- 14Universitetet i Bergen
- 15Edinburgh Medical School
- 16Mydnavar
- 17VA Boston Healthcare System
- 18Argonne National Laboratory
- 19University of Leicester
- 20Institute of Biomedical Technologies-CNR
- 21Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex
- 22Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen
- 23Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research
- 24Universität Regensburg
- 25Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre
- 26Università degli Studi di Milano
- 27Brigham and Women's Hospital
- 28University of California, Berkeley
- 29Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad de Chile
- 30Mount Sinai Hospital
- 31University of Pennsylvania
- 32Genotek Ltd.
- 33Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry
- 34Istituto Giannina Gaslini
- 35International Islamic University Malaysia
- 36All India Institute of Medical Sciences Patna
- 37Universiti Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah
- 38Graduate School of Medicine
- 39Keio University School of Medicine
- 40Universitätsklinikum Gießen und Marburg, Standort Marburg
- 41Universität Bonn
- 42Université McGill
- 43McGill Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
- 44L'Institut de Recherche du Centre Universitaire de Santé McGill
- 45Institut Universitaire de Cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec - Université Laval
- 46Centre Hospitalier de L'Université de Montréal
- 47Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center
- 48Harvard Medical School
- 49Portland VA Medical Center
- 50UCSF School of Medicine
- 51Universidad Austral de Chile
- 52Universidad de Concepcion
- 53Fundación Arturo López Pérez
- 54Vicerrectoría de Investigación Desarrollo y Creación Artística
- 55Universidad de Chile
- 56
- 57
- 58Hospital del Salvador
- 59Universidad de Talca
- 60Universidad de Antofagasta
- 61Universidad de Tarapacá
- 62Universidad de Atacama
- 63Hospital Clínico Universidad De Chile
- 64Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas de la Universidad de Chile
- 65
- 66Institut de Recherche en Immunologie et en Cancérologie de l’Université de Montréal
- 67Klinikum Rechts der Isar
- 68Klinikum der Universität München
- 69Uppsala Universitet
- 70Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie
- 71Helmholtz Center Munich German Research Center for Environmental Health
- 72TUM Fakultät für Medizin
- 73Universitätsmedizin Göttingen
- 74Penn Medicine
- 75Folkehelseinstituttet
- 76David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
- 77Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana
- 78Instituto de Salud Global de Barcelona
- 79Genomes for Life-GCAT lab
- 80Rigshospitalet
- 81Statens Serum Institut
- 82Noorafshar Hospital
- 83Shariati Hospital
- 84Digestive Oncology Research Center
- 85School of Medicine
- 86University General Hospital of Ioannina
- 87Biomedical Research Foundation Academy of Athens
- 88Renown Health
- 89University of Nevada, Reno
- 90Eligens SIA
- 91Università degli Studi di Siena
- 92Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Cesena
- 93Massachusetts General Hospital
- 94Simon Fraser University
- 95Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
- 96Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico
- 97Universitetet i Oslo
- 98Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri
- 99Tartu Ülikooli Genoomika Instituut
- 100Aarhus Universitetshospital
- 101Sjællands Universitetshospital
- 102University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine
- 103Instituto de Investigaciones Biomedicas de la UNAM
- 104Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Journal
Nature Genetics
ISSN
1546-1718
1061-4036
Open Access
hybrid
Volume
57
Start page
1402
End page
1417
Infections can lead to persistent symptoms and diseases such as shingles after varicella zoster or rheumatic fever after streptococcal infections. Similarly, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) infection can result in long coronavirus disease (COVID), typically manifesting as fatigue, pulmonary symptoms and cognitive dysfunction. The biological mechanisms behind long COVID remain unclear. We performed a genome-wide association study for long COVID including up to 6,450 long COVID cases and 1,093,995 population controls from 24 studies across 16 countries. We discovered an association of FOXP4 with long COVID, independent of its previously identified association with severe COVID-19. The signal was replicated in 9,500 long COVID cases and 798,835 population controls. Given the transcription factor FOXP4's role in lung physiology and pathology, our findings highlight the importance of lung function in the pathophysiology of long COVID.