Ijaz Durrani

It would be interesting to study this information! It is known that viruses have their own cycles. These cycles are poorly understood. Perhaps in ancient times there was a similar pandemic of the ancient coronavirus. We do not yet know the answer to this mystery.

Regards, Sergey Viktorovich Pushkin

I have previously replied to a similar question on this forum. Please see the following RG discussion thread.

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Neanderthal-genes-responsible-for-dangerous-complications-of-Corona

Also see the link below.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ajmg.a.61247

Modern humans and Neanderthals could be forgiven for having other issues on their minds when they interbred in the stone age. But according to researchers, those ancient couplings laid a grim foundation for deaths around the world today.

Scientists have claimed that a strand of DNA that triples the risk of developing severe Covid-19 was passed on from Neanderthals to modern humans. The genetic endowment, a legacy from more than 50,000 years ago, has left about 16% of Europeans and half of south Asians today carrying these genes.

The origins of the risk genes came to light when scientists in Sweden and Germany compared the DNA of very sick Covid-19 patients with that from Neanderthals and their mysterious sister group, the Denisovans. The stretch of DNA that makes patients more likely to fall seriously ill closely matched that collected from a Neanderthal in Croatia.

“I almost fell off my chair because the segment of DNA was exactly the same as in the Neanderthal genome,” Hugo Zeberg, an assistant professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, told the Guardian.

Zeberg and his co-author, Svante Pääbo, director of the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, suspect the Neanderthal genes have persisted in modern humans because they were once beneficial, perhaps helping to fight off other infections. Only now – when faced with a new infection – has their downside been exposed.

It is unclear how the genes may worsen Covid-19, but one gene plays a role in the immune response and another has been linked to the mechanism the virus uses to invade human cells. “We are trying to pinpoint which gene is the key player, or if there are several key players, but the honest answer is that we don’t know which are critical in Covid-19,” Zeberg said.

According to the study, published in Nature, the cluster of genes on chromosome three are most commonly found in Bangladesh, where 63% of the population carry at least one copy of the DNA sequence.

“The genes in this region may well have protected the Neanderthals against some other infectious diseases that are not around today. And now, when we are faced with the novel coronavirus these Neanderthal genes have these tragic consequences,” Pääbo said.

The researcher, who led the international team that first deciphered the Neanderthal genome in 2010, said his “rough estimate” was that about 100,000 “additional” people have died so far in the current pandemic due to the genetic contribution from Neanderthals.

مهتم جدا

I thank you all for the excellent answers and clarifications.

Kamal M Alsaad

Arvind Singh

Sergey Viktorovich Pushkin

Thanks for the clarification.

Please have a look at this article

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2818-3

Thanks dear Lamia Al-Naama.

Very good subject dear lamia....

If the virus is manufactured or a result of testing protocol failures what genetic population is most at risk? Would this suggest that Europeans are in the highest risk category?

Brian Fitzgerald I think this is happening. Look at Covid's figures in the world, where more deaths are occurring, in Europe and countries that were created by Europeans. Indo-European-speaking peoples are hardest hit. Maybe it's a genetic issue.

Dear doctors, Brian Fitzgerald Samem Al- Dabagh thanks for the answers!