Favors severe Covid-19
Neanderthal gene protects against HIV infection
02/24/2022, 5:21 p.m
In addition to factors such as age, obesity and previous illnesses, a corresponding genetic disposition also increases the risk of becoming seriously ill with Covid-19. This comes from the Neanderthals and at the same time offers protection against another virus.
Researchers have found genes that come from Neanderthals and can reduce the risk of HIV infection by 27 percent. These are the same genetic sections that also increase the risk of a severe course of Covid-19. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm had already identified this connection in autumn 2020.
During further research on prehistoric human DNA, the researcher dua Svante Pääbo and Hugo Zeberg saw that this gene variant has been occurring much more frequently since the end of the last Ice Age than had previously been assumed. “This Covid-19 risk variant is so common that I wondered if it might be good for something,” said according to a statement from the institutethe author of the study Hugo Zeberg.
Advantages of the Neanderthal variant
The genetic segment known as the Neanderthal variant is located in a region on chromosome 3. It is also where several genes that work for receptors in the immune system are located. The HI virus, in turn, uses one of these receptors, called CCR5, to hijack and infect white blood cells. Zeberg found that people who have the Neanderthal variant in their genome have fewer of these CCR5 receptors overall.
The research team then checked whether this also reduced the risk of infection with the HI virus. They analyzed data from three major biobanks from three countries, FinnGen, the UK Biobank and the Michigan Genomic Initiative, and found that those carrying this gene variant had a 27 percent lower risk of contracting HIV. “Having this gene variant can be both good and bad for the carrier: bad if they contract Covid-19; good if they are at risk of contracting HIV and have some protection against this virus.” , summed up Zeberg.
At the same time, however, it remains unclear why the variant of the Neanderthal gene had already spread so widely 10,000 years ago. For protection against HIV it may not be as the virus and disease only emerged in the 20th century. “Now we know that the Covid-19 variant offers some protection against HIV infection. But it may have been protection against another disease that then – after the last ice age – led to the widespread spread of this particular gene variant contributed,” Zeberg is further quoted as saying. What illness or diseases that could have been has so far remained open. the Results of the researchers wurden in “Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of Americ” (PNAS) veröffentlicht.