Authors:
Alexandra Baumann
1
;
Jakob Thiel
2
;
Nina Haffer
3
;
4
;
Shailendra Gupta
1
and
Markus Wolfien
2
;
5
Affiliations:
1
Department of Systems Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany
;
2
Institute for Medical Informatics and Biometry, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, TUD Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany
;
3
Berlin Institute of Health at Charité - Universitatsmedizin Berlin, Germany
;
4
Charité - University Medicine Berlin, Germany
;
5
Center for Scalable Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (ScaDS.AI), Dresden/Leipzig, Dresden, Germany
Keyword(s):
Heat Illness, Heat Susceptibility, Climate Change, Ethnicity, Genetic Association.
Abstract:
As climate change increases the frequency and severity of acute heat events, it is crucial to determine factors for appropriate healthcare strategies and predictive models. Previously, it was stated that socioeconomic factors primarily play a role in heat-related illness risk. Analogous to the polar bear’s unique adaptations to the cold, humans exhibit distinct genetic traits shaped by their migration to diverse climates. This position paper hypothesizes that genetic differences among human ethnic groups, in addition to socioeconomic and other factors, also contribute to variations in thermoregulation and influence susceptibility to heat-related diseases. To understand genetic adaptations across human ethnicities (initially European and African), we propose a genetic association analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes associated with thermoregulation. An assessment of changes in thermoregulation gene regulation networks will be possible by conducting a functional
pathway analysis. Expected outcomes include identifying differences in SNP distributions of thermoregulation-associated genes across ethnicities. Challenges such as the underrepresentation of African populations in genomic databases must also be addressed. This research aims to provide a foundational understanding of genetic contributions to heat adaptation, guiding the development of personalized, equitable healthcare responses to climate-induced heat stress.
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