Genetics of COVID-19 in children and young adults in the UAE.

Several risk factors, including age, sex and underlying health conditions, have already been shown to modify clinical outcomes in COVID-19 patients. However, additional, yet-to-be discovered, risk factors are also very likely to contribute to COVID-19 clinical outcomes. There is evolving body of knowledge suggesting that host variables, mainly genetic factors, controlling the immune system and host-virus interactions could contribute to COVID-19 etiology. We hypothesize that severe presentations in young, healthy patients are more likely to be due to highly penetrant genetic factors. Our study is therefore designed to characterize those genetic factors predisposing to severe COVID-19 outcomes in this young patient population. We will perform whole exome on blood samples from young patients to identify strong genetic risk factors associated with severe COVID-19 outcomes. We will then perform whole transcriptome sequencing to functionally characterize the molecular pathway(s) possibly associated with the faulty genetic errors in those patients. Additionally, we will conduct targeted functional analysis of novel genes and/or variants using CRISPR-CAS gene editing technology