If you are extremely sensitive to bitter flavors, you may be more resistant to SARS-CoV-2 - at least, that seems to be the implication from a newly pu

Weird Discovery Shows 'Supertasters' Could Be Better at Fighting Off SARS-CoV-2

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2021-05-26 11:30:14

If you are extremely sensitive to bitter flavors, you may be more resistant to SARS-CoV-2 - at least, that seems to be the implication from a newly published study.

According to data from nearly 2,000 patients in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, people with the 'supertaster' variant of a taste receptor gene made up a disproportionately small percentage of those testing positive for COVID-19.

This finding not only furthers a link between the gene variant and reduced susceptibility to upper respiratory tract infections, but could help doctors better assess the risk and outcomes of COVID-19.

"We set out to identify an association between T2R genotype with phenotype and outcomes after infection with COVID-19," the researchers wrote in their paper.

"We present our findings as an area that warrants further scientific study to potentially create a safe, cost-effective, accurate, and easily scalable screening tool that has the potential to stratify patients into groups and assess the risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2 and the expected clinical course of the disease."

The idea arose when a team of medical doctors led by Henry Barnham of Sinus and Nasal Specialists of Louisiana set out to investigate one of the hallmark symptoms of COVID-19 - the subjective loss of taste and smell. They gave a taste test to 100 patients who had tested positive for the virus, and, curiously, found that none of them was a supertaster.