'Vikings disease' is inherited from Neanderthals

Genetic Connection

Another piece of research conducted in 1999 reported that 80 percent of the cause is hereditary, signifying a strong genetic influence. 

The study’s lead author Hugo Zeberg of Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm said, “this is a case where the meeting with Neanderthals has affected who suffers from an illness, although we should not exaggerate the connection between Neanderthals and Vikings.”

Other research has also estimated the prevalence of Dupuytren’s disease among Norwegians over 60 years to be as much as 30%, the press release states.  

The nickname “Viking disease” was allocated to Dupuytren’s disease because of an ostensive geographical distribution.

People from south of the Sahara have little ancestry from Neanderthals or Denisovans, who lived in Europe and Asia until at least 42,000 years ago. 

Scientific findings

Additionally, the study finds that almost two percent of the genome from Neanderthals was found in individuals outside of African lineage while some populations have up to five percent Denisovan ancestry.

Such obsolete gene variants prevailing from different regions play a role in attributing the symptoms of diseases observed primarily in certain populations according to the study.

To identify genetic risk variants for the disorder, researchers used data from 7,871 cases and 645,880 controls from the UK Biobank, the FinnGen R7 collection, and the Michigan Genomics Initiative. 

After investigating the hand disorder’s genetic origin, scientists found 61 genome-wide significant variants associated with Dupuytren’s disease. 

“Further analysis showed that three of these variants are of Neanderthal origin, including the second and third most strongly associated ones.”

The study was published on 14 June and can be found here.

Abstract

Dupuytren's disease is characterized by fingers becoming permanently bent in a flexed position. Whereas people of African ancestry are rarely afflicted by Dupuytren's disease, up to ∼30% of men over 60 years suffer from this condition in northern Europe. Here, we meta-analyze 3 biobanks comprising 7,871 cases and 645,880 controls and find 61 genome-wide significant variants associated with Dupuytren's disease. We show that 3 of the 61 loci harbor alleles of Neandertal origin, including the second and third most strongly associated ones (P = 6.4 × 10−132 and P = 9.2 × 10−69, respectively). For the most strongly associated Neandertal variant, we identify EPDR1 as the causal gene. Dupuytren's disease is an example of how admixture with Neandertals has shaped regional differences in disease prevalence.