Bitter taste receptors and COVID-19

Project Summary

Proteins that help taste sensation (bitter taste receptors or T2Rs) have recently been shown to play an important role in the body’s earliest defense against infection. We think differences in T2R genes that affect their function will impact COVID-19 infection symptoms, severity, and possibly vaccine responses. We will use data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging to describe associations between variations in T2R genes and COVID-19 infection outcomes and symptoms such as loss of taste and smell, and antibody responses to COVID-19 infection and vaccines in older individuals, as well as in older individuals with chronic medical conditions including immune diseases. We expect to find that differences in T2Rs genes will impact COVID-19 illness severity even after we consider other known risk factors.