A lot of questions are surfacing on why some people have severe symptoms of COVID-19 while some individuals do not. One reason seems to be due to a gene cluster found on chromosome 3 locus, which increases susceptibility to respiratory failure. (Zeberg & Paabo, 2020) Another reason is that a group of researchers from the United Kingdom speculated that individuals that contained neanderthal-derived haplotypes are at a higher risk of having severe symptoms of COVID-19. At the beginning of this year, researchers found that 50,000-long nucleotide DNA segments had a strong correlation with severe COVID-19 infections. This 50,000- long nucleotide DNA segment is found to be related to Vindija 33.19 Neanderthals. At the same time, they found out that the COVID-19 risk haplotype on chromosome 3 is similar to other genetic variants of the Neanderthal and Denisovan populations. (Zeberg & Paabo 2020) An interesting report that was obtained from the Writing in Nature by Zeberg and Pablo found that these 50,000 long nucleotide segments were inherited from the Neanderthals. Many of the Neanderthal genomes in the past had a positive influence on survival chances and reproductive success. But as we are reaching the modern human genome for survival, we are starting to see that this genome-inherited Neanderthal DNA has a negative impact by increasing the chances of getting diseases. (Luo, 2020) Through the data that was collected by hospitals, they noticed that individuals of Bangladeshi origins are twice as likely to die from COVID-19 compared to other individuals that also had COVID-19. Even though there is no clear answer why, the authors believe that when the individual gets infected with COVID-19, their immune response works with the Neanderthal gene and becomes overly aggressive with expression. As a result, they developed severe symptoms from COVID-19. But the authors solely based this information on genetics, but environmental factors and social inequality have an impact on mortality rates on COVID-19 as well. (Luo, 2020) It is interesting to see the effects that Neanderthals genes have an impact on society today.
Luo, Y. (2020, October 26). Neanderthal DNA highlights complexity of COVID risk factors. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02957-3
Zeberg, H., & Pääbo, S. (2020, September 30). The major genetic risk factor for severe COVID-19 is inherited from Neanderthals. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2818-3
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