[ad_1]
According to a study by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology published in the journal Hugo Zeberg and Svante Pääbo Nature, a gene from Neanderthal ancestors could exacerbate the outcome of coronavirus infection.
Sapiens Neanderthalensis and Sapiens Sapiens / Source: National Museum of History, London
Pääbo and Zeberg analyzed the DNA of 3,200 coronavirus patients in need of hospital care and compared it to a general sample of 900,000.
The problematic stage is chromosome 3, which entered the human genome when a human and Neanderthal relative mixed up about sixty thousand years ago. The gene is carried by about 16 percent of Europeans, is found in an average of 50 percent of the South Asian population, and is highest in Bangladesh, with 63 percent of the population.
People who have inherited this gene are three times more likely to need artificial respiration for a coronavirus infection
Hugo Zeberg told CNN.
Researchers do not yet know what explains why the genes in question worsen the chances of being infected; in which case it leads to the opposite end result.
[ad_2]
