In 2020, researchers claimed to have discovered a Covid Neanderthal gene that decreased our ability to fight the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19. Now, a new research project in Japan has identified a group of three genes in human DNA, inherited from Neanderthals, that help the body’s cells when trying to defeat the invading viruses. These genes can reduce the risk of developing severe Covid-19 “by about 20%”.
Identifying the “Neanderthal Resistant Covid-19 Genes”
The team of researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology at the Graduate University (OIST) of Japan and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Germany found that the cross between modern humans and Neanderthals meant that we inherited the gene about 60,000 years ago . Scientists have now determined that having this gene can help you fight SARS-CoV-2, which affects people in different ways, from no symptoms to respiratory failure and death.
Last year in a Ancient Origins news article I discussed the findings of Professors Svante Pääbo, who heads the OIST Human Evolutionary Genomics Unit in Japan, and his colleague Hugo Zeberg. The pair of genetic scientists published a controversial report in Nature claiming that “the biggest genetic risk factor identified so far, doubling the risk of developing severe Covid-19 when infected with the virus, was inherited from Neanderthals”. The newspaper said the Neanderthal gene “increases the risk of developing severe Covid-19”.
Now, the same group of genes has been found to be beneficial for about 20% of people and can help reduce the risk of becoming seriously ill and being hospitalized with Covid-19. This new research has just been published in PNAS.
Recent research shows that the gene dubbed the “Covid Neanderthal gene” can affect our ability to develop severe Covid-19 symptoms. ( Perig Production / Adobe Stock)
22% lower risk of severe Covid-19 symptoms
The same pair of scientists has now published a new study based on the findings of a 2020 study by Genetics of mortality in intensive care ( GenOMICC) This UK-based project analyzed the genome sequences of “2,244 people who developed severe COvid-19” and identified additional genetic regions on four chromosomes that affect how individuals respond to the virus when they are infected. The research shows human genes “almost identical to those found in three Neanderthals – one Neanderthal from Croatia about 50,000 years old and two Neanderthals, one about 70,000 years old and the other about 120,000 years old, from southern Siberia.”
Scientists are certain that diseases like diabetes and obesity greatly amplify the effects of Covid-19. However, “surprisingly”, this second genetic factor influences Covid-19’s results in the opposite direction to the first genetic factor, “providing protection instead of increasing the risk of developing severe Covid-19”. For those who like to keep abreast of developments in the DNA sciences, this Neanderthal variant was discovered on chromosome 12. And to be precise, having this gene reduces the risk of requiring intensive care after Covid-19 infection by about 22%.
Geographical distribution of the Neanderthal Covid gene that can reduce the risk of developing severe Covid-19. ( OpenStreetMap / 1000 Genomes Project )
How Neanderthal genetic variants affect us today
In an attempt to understand how this Neolithic genetic variant affects Covid-19’s results, the research team analyzed three genes located in a newly identified region. Known as OAS , the body produces these defensive enzymes after viral infection and they stimulate other enzymes that attack and degrade viral genomes housed in infected cells. In a press release from the Graduate University of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), Professor Pääbo explained that “it is quite surprising that, despite the extinction of Neanderthals some 40,000 years ago, their immune system still influences us from positive and negative ways today ”
In their new study, the researchers also looked at how the newly discovered Neanderthal genetic variants “changed in frequency after ending up in modern humans about 60,000 years ago”. Professor Pääbo commented that enzymes encoded by the Neanderthal variant “are more efficient” in reducing the chance of serious consequences for SARS-CoV-2 infections. In addition, the results of the new study show that the Neanderthal variant “increased in frequency after the last Ice Age and then increased in frequency again during the last millennium”.
Bad Neanderthal gene is not a Japanese “thing” at all
The fact that Neanderthals developed this gene more than 60,000 years ago suggested to researchers that it must have been beneficial in the past as well, “perhaps during other disease outbreaks caused by RNA viruses,” said Professor Pääbo. The gene is present in about half of people living outside Africa today and in about 30% of people in Japan.
Going back for a moment to last year’s article, which identified a Neanderthal gene that represented “a major health risk”. Japanese scientists must have been somewhat relieved to discover in their new study that this negative genetic variant inherited from Neanderthals is almost unmeasurable in modern Japanese populations.
Top image: New research has found that a group of genes, dubbed the Neanderthal covid genes, reduces the risk of developing severe Covid-19 by about 20% and has been inherited from Neanderthals. Source: Bjorn Oberg / Karolinska Institutet
By Ashley Cowie