Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Sep;7 Suppl 2(Suppl 2):37-41.
doi: 10.1111/irv.12079.

An updated systematic review of the role of host genetics in susceptibility to influenza

Peter Horby  1 , Nhu Y Nguyen  1 , Sarah J Dunstan  1 , John Kenneth Baillie  2
Affiliations

An updated systematic review of the role of host genetics in susceptibility to influenza

Peter Horby et al. Influenza Other Respir Viruses. 2013 Sep.

Abstract

The World Health Organization has identified studies of the role of host genetics on susceptibility to severe influenza as a priority. A systematic review was conducted in June 2011 to summarise the evidence on the role of host genetics in susceptibility to influenza, and this report updates that previously published review. Animal studies suggest that genetic control of susceptibility to severe influenza in mice is complex and not controlled by a single locus, but there is encouraging evidence that some of the host genetic determinants of susceptibility to severe disease may be common across influenza subtypes. Although a number of studies on genetic susceptibility to influenza in humans have been published recently, all are underpowered and unreplicated, so do not provide robust statistical evidence of an association between the identified genetic loci and susceptibility. One study does however present convincing functional evidence for an important role for IFITM3 in susceptibility to severe influenza in mice, and some evidence that this may also be important in human A/H1N1/pdm2009 infection.

Keywords: Animal model; host genetics; human influenza; susceptibility; systematic review.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Horby P, Nguyen NY, Dunstan SJ, Baillie JK. The role of host genetics in susceptibility to influenza: a systematic review. PLoS ONE 2012; 7:e33180. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Horby P, Sudoyo H, Viprakasit V et al What is the evidence of a role for host genetics in susceptibility to influenza A/H5N1? Epidemiol Infect 2010; 138:1550–1558. - PubMed
    1. Bautista E, Chotpitayasunondh T, Gao Z et al Clinical aspects of pandemic 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus infection. N Engl J Med 2010; 362:1708–1719. - PubMed
    1. Lander ES. Initial impact of the sequencing of the human genome. Nature 2011; 470:187–197. - PubMed
    1. WHO . WHO Public Health Research Agenda for Influenza. Geneva: WHO, 2009.

Publication types