Covid: Some Neanderthal Genes Are Helpful, Others Are Harmful

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- 'A genetic advantage inherited from Neanderthals could give some people a 22% lower risk of severe COVID-19.' Business Insider, Feb. 18, 2021. - Excerpts -

Some people may have genes inherited from Neanderthals that reduce their risk of severe COVID-19 by 22%, a study found. But the same researchers previously found that Neanderthal DNA can also put people at higher risk of respiratory failure due to COVID-19. The inherited genes are more common in Europe and Asia.. Scientists think Neanderthal DNA makes up 1% to 2% of the genomes of many people of European and Asian descent. That small fraction of people's genetic codes may hold important clues about our immune responses to pathogens. In a study published this week, Zeberg and his colleague Svante Pääbo at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology suggest that some people may have inherited a genetic advantage that reduces their risk of getting severe COVID-19 by 22%.

Some Neanderthal genes are helpful, others are harmful.

.. Zeberg and Pääbo found that the Neanderthal-inherited haplotype may have become more common among humans in the last 1,000 years. One possible explanation for this, Zeberg said, is the genes' role in protecting people against other diseases caused by RNA viruses. For their new study, the team relied on the genomes of three Neanderthals — two whose remains were found in southern Siberia and one from Croatia. The DNA dates back 50,000 to 120,000 years. They compared those Neanderthal genomes to the DNA of thousands of people with severe COVID-19.

The haplotype associated with less severe COVID-19 was found in all three Neanderthal genomes. It codes for proteins that activate enzymes that help degrade RNA viruses. However, a prior study from Zeberg and Pääbo, published in September, showed that not all Neanderthal DNA confers an advantage. In that research, they found that some modern humans have inherited a haplotype on chromosome 3 that puts them at higher risk of respiratory failure due to COVID-19. That particular gene cluster was found in the Neanderthal from Croatia.

"If you have that variant, you have twice the risk of getting severely ill with COVID-19 — perhaps even more," Zeberg said. Zeberg's research suggests that around 25% to 30% of people in Europe and Asia carry the protective haplotype, while up to 65% of people in South Asia and 16% of people in Europe carry the dangerous one. Unfortunately, he said, the protective haplotype doesn't offset the risk of the dangerous one for those who have both...

More, https://www.businessinsider.com/neanderthal-genes-lower-risk-severe-coronavirus-2021-2



- Reconstruction of an older Neanderthal man. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal