Study finds Neanderthal gene increases severe COVID risk

Researchers found that genes inherited from Neanderthals were likely to suffer life-threatening circumstances caused by the infection, while others without the gene weren’t in as much danger.

The substantial infection rate in Bergamo provided researchers with the data, but the study doesn't explain the higher death toll compared to other areas in Italy or Europe.

Past observations made some severe symptoms and risk factors clear, including a higher threat to the elderly. Now, a team of scientists from the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan has dedicated the past few years to scrutinizing potential associations between DNA variations and COVID-19.

They deduced that people with the Neanderthal haplotype were twice as likely to develop severe pneumonia from a COVID-19 infection than those who didn’t and three times as likely to be hospitalized in intensive-care units and put on ventilators, the Wall Street Journal stated.

The study analyzed a sample of roughly 10,000 people in the northern Italian city, noticing that most people who suffered from severe respiratory illness comprised three genes inherited from Neanderthals.

However, Epidemiologists are still unclear if the haplotype gene is more common in the Bergamo region than in other Italian or European regions.

Family members facing similar symptoms

Furthermore, the research says that family members with the genes often encountered similar symptoms of the disease, implying an extent of genetic predisposition. 

Other factors scientists propose may have contributed to the region’s high degree of the infection could be – age, air pollution, and that the virus hit the region early in the pandemic and spread undetected. 

Giuseppe Remuzzi, an infectious disease expert and director of the Mario Negri Institute, who oversaw the research, stated: 

“This study shows there is a particular section of the human genome that is significantly associated with the risk of getting COVID-19 and developing a severe form of it. That section is more important than any others to explain why some fall seriously ill.”

Remuzzi claimed that 33 percent of people who experienced life-threatening conditions of COVID-19 had the Neanderthal haplotype gene, whereas the haplotype was less present in people who developed mild or no symptoms from a COVID-19 infection. 

The empirical data further depicted that two percent of the genomes of European people or people of Asian origin are inherited from Neanderthals. Science shows that genomes are connected to modern humans’ vulnerability to a variety of diseases.

“The Italian research adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that a cluster of Neanderthal genes increases the likelihood of developing severe forms of COVID-19,” reported the Wall Street Journal.

Marco Cattaneo, the editor of the Italian edition of Scientific American, noted that many factors are to be considered in the Italian city during the heightened effects of the pandemic, including “measures to stop the virus from spreading is what would have made the real difference.”