Everybody loves Neandertals, those big-brained brutes we supposedly outcompeted and ultimately replaced using our sharp tongues and quick, delicate minds. But did we really, though? Is it mathematically possible that we could yet be them, and they us?
By the same token, could not the impossibly singular Mitochondrial Eve, her contemporary Y-chromosome Adam, and even the “Out of Africa” hypothesis simply be convenient fictions paleogeneticists tell each other at conferences to give their largely arbitrary haplotype designations and subsequently derived evolutionary trees more credence?
Perhaps one of the best ways to try to answer this question is to ask what the coronavirus has to say about the issue. Svante Pääbo, director of the genetics department at the Max Planck Institute certainly believes that Homo sapiens Neanderthalensis, or just Homo Neanderthalensis, if you prefer, is extinct. Pääbo, the son of 1982 Noble laureate Sune Bergström, has made a nice living off of Neandertal bones, finding gene after gene that is distinctly “Neandertal.” In 1997, Pääbo successfully sequenced mitochondrial DNA from a specimen found in Feldhofer grotto in the Neander valley. Fast-forwarding past a few recent PR disasters, the Germans were able to capture the productive Swede and set him upon the task of dealing with these inconvenient heirloom skeletons that kept showing up.
This September, Pääbo and colleague Hugo Zeberg announced that the major genetic risk factor for severe COVID-19 is inherited from Neanderthals. (We note that Nature publications prefer to include the h.) By any measure, this is a bold statement. The team found that severe COVID-19 disease is associated with specific genetic variants in six genes within a 50K-base-pair-long region of chromosome 3 that derived directly from a Neanderthal heritage. Similar investigations have also identified a protective Neanderthal haplotype on chromosome (chr) 12 that reduces the risk of severe COVID-9, and a protective region on chromosome 9 that is associated with the ABO blood groups.
Not content to rest on their laurels, Pääbo and Zeberg have just kicked things up a notch. The pair recently reported on the bioRxiv preprint server that another exclusively Neandertal variant, this time in the promoter region of the DPP4 gene at chr2q24.2, is really pulling the strings on COVID susceptibility. DPP4 is a widely expressed extracellular dipeptidyl peptidase involved in immune function and glucose metabolism. As it happens, DPP4 is also the receptor gene for the MERS coronavirus. Now we are getting somewhere.
Image Credit: Wikipedia
Post by Amanda Scott, NA CEO. Follow her on twitter @tantriclens
Thanks to Heinz V. Hoenen. Follow him on twitter: @HeinzVHoenen
News
Hundreds of AI tools have been built to catch covid – None of them helped
When covid-19 struck Europe in March 2020, hospitals were plunged into a health crisis that was still badly understood. “Doctors really didn’t have a clue how to manage these patients,” says Laure Wynants, an [...]
Two doses of Pfizer, AstraZeneca COVID-19 shots effective against delta variant, study finds
Pfizer found to be 88 per cent effective at preventing symptomatic disease from delta variant. Two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca-Oxford's COVID-19 vaccines are nearly as effective against the highly transmissible delta coronavirus variant [...]
S.Africa’s Aspen releases first batch of Johnson vaccine
South African pharmaceutical company Aspen said Monday it was releasing its first batch of African-produced COVID-19 vaccines under a licensing deal with the US giant Johnson & Johnson. The Durban-based company said the first [...]
COVID-19 Variants: What the Future Could Look Like After the Pandemic
Since the coronavirus pandemic shut down the world, scientists have clamored to develop vaccines to prevent the spread and medicines that will cure the sick. But a virus’ main goal is to replicate and [...]
Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 will likely be dominant strain globally within months
The highly transmissible delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus causing the disease COVID-19, is now present in 124 countries and will become the dominant strain globally in the coming months as it is outcompeting [...]
UK scientists back Covid boosters as study finds post-jab falls in antibodies
Scientists have backed proposals for Covid boosters in the autumn after blood tests on hundreds of people revealed that protective antibodies can wane substantially within weeks of second vaccine shots being given. Falls in [...]
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines establish recall responses to reinfection
Researchers in the United States have conducted a study showing that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna generate a coordinated adaptive immune response that is capable of eliciting recall [...]
Study shows new ‘warm vaccine’ effective against all key virus variants
CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, played an important role in evaluating heat-tolerant COVID-19 vaccine formulations developed by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and biotech start-up Mynvax—against all current SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. Published [...]
Podcast – Nanovisaging 2040 How Synergies between Nanotechnology, Nanomedicine, and AI might Benefit Humanity
Frank Boehm (NanoApps Medical Inc. Founder) in discussion with Nana Kay in a Wealth Secrets podcast. EP 19. Nanovisaging 2040. From Nana Kay: Nanovisaging 2040: How Synergies between Nanotechnology, Nanomedicine, and AI might Benefit [...]
Data in favour of mixing COVID-19 vaccines, but long-term effects unknown
Canada, like several other countries, has been mixing and matching COVID-19 vaccines for weeks amid safety concerns over the AstraZeneca shot. On Monday, the chief scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO) cautioned against that approach, calling [...]
CRISPR stops coronavirus replication in human cells
Scientists have harnessed CRISPR gene-editing technology to block the replication of the novel coronavirus in human cells — an approach that could one day serve as a new treatment for COVID-19. However, the study was performed [...]
Controlling the Size of Nanoparticles
Depositing nanoparticles using the NL50 is now simpler than ever with the pre-loaded optimized recipes for a variety of frequently used materials, including Au, Ag, Pt and Cu. These optimized recipes generate high-quality nano-coatings [...]
Shape of Nanoparticles in Body Fluids – a Biomarker for Identifying Cancer Types?
A recent study by scientists from Japanese universities has shown that the shape of cell-derived nanoparticles, known as "extracellular vesicles" (EVs), in body fluids could be a biomarker for identifying types of cancer. In [...]
Study reveals how our immune system reacts to COVID-19 variants
An important lesson for vaccine design Australian scientists researching how our immune system responds to COVID-19 have revealed that those infected by early variants in 2020 produced sustained antibodies, however, these antibodies are not [...]
COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 8 July
1. How COVID-19 is affecting the globe Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 185 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths stands at more than 4 million. More than 3.29 [...]
Here’s what you should know about the Lambda variant
The World Health Organization (WHO) has added another COVID strain to its list of coronavirus variants to keep an eye on: the COVID-19 Lambda variant. This particular variant has now spread to more than two dozen [...]
