Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have shown that half of all people of non-African descent have a genetic variant that reduces the risk of severe COVID-19 by 20 percent. This gene was passed on from Neanderthals along with DNA, which, on the contrary, increases the likelihood of complications from coronavirus infection. This is reported in an article published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Experts have found that a region on chromosome 12 contains OAS genes that regulate the activity of an enzyme that destroys viral genomes, and Neanderthal variants of genes enhance this action. As we already know, the main genetic risk factor for COVID-19 is located on chromosome 3 and dramatically increases the likelihood of respiratory failure and death.
Researchers have also shown that the defensive option has increased in frequency since the last Ice Age. Its distribution suggests that it had a beneficial effect on the population.
Previously it was reported that scientists have found a promoter region of the DPP4 gene present in humans and Neanderthals, which affects susceptibility to COVID-19. The DPP4 gene product is an extracellular dipeptidyl peptidase involved in immune function and glucose metabolism.