The genetic variants we are born with could increase or decrease our risk of falling seriously ill with COVID-19.
The major genetic risk variant for severe COVID-19, one we inherited from Neandertals, is surprisingly common. This raises the question of whether it may actually be of advantage to carry this variant.
In a new study from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, researchers found that the same gene variant that increases the risk of falling seriously ill with COVID-19 protects from another serious disease—it reduces a person’s risk of contracting HIV by 27 percent.
Some people become seriously ill when infected with SARS-CoV-2 while others have only mild symptoms or no symptoms at all.
In addition to risk factors such as advanced age and chronic diseases, like diabetes, our genetic heritage also contributes to our individual COVID-19 severity risk.
In the autumn of 2020, the team showed that we inherited the major genetic risk factor for severe COVID-19 from Neandertals.
In the spring of 2021, the team studied this variant in ancient human DNA and observed that its frequency has increased significantly since the last ice age. In fact, it has become unexpectedly common for a genetic variant inherited from Neandertals.
They found that people who carried the risk factor for COVID-19 had fewer CCR5 receptors.
By analyzing patient data from three major biobanks (FinnGen, UK Biobank and Michigan Genomic Initiative), the team found that carriers of the risk variant for COVID-19 had a 27 percent lower risk of contracting HIV.
However, since HIV only arose during the 20th century, protection against this infectious disease cannot explain why the genetic risk variant for COVID-19 became so common among humans as early as 10,000 years ago.
The team says it was probably protection against yet another disease that increased its frequency after the last ice age.
If you care about COVID, please read studies about common drugs that could help prevent COVID-19 deaths, and people with COVID-19 recover faster with this treatment.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about existing drugs that can kill COVID-19 virus, and results showing that slow walkers four times more likely to die from COVID-19.
The study is published in PNAS and was conducted by Hugo Zeberg et al.
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