People with one particular line of gene more susceptible to severe Covid: Study

As people globallystarted coming to terms with their locked-down reality during the beginning of the Covid pandemic,visuals of military trucks in Italy keeping the deceased struck the world, alerting it about the havoc the contagion virus was set to create in the months to follow all over the world.

An Italian Army truck is parked on March 26, 2020 inside the Monumental Cemetery of Bergamo, Lombardy, to load coffins of victims of the coronavirus | AFP

Now through astudy from Italy's Bergamo, from where these visuals were reported, it has emerged thatNeanderthal genes inherited by some individuals are the reasonwhy some individuals developed life-threatening forms of COVID-19.

Early in the pandemic, it was evident that several risk factors, including advanced age, played a role.

Scientists also suspected genetic predisposition, as younger family membersoften exhibited similar disease severity.

Genes and Covid: What's the link?

Researchers at Milan's Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research spent the last few years analysing DNA variations and COVID-19.

Their study, which had a base of nearly 10,000 Bergamo residents, identified genes linked to severe respiratory illness, including three inherited from Neanderthals.

The Italian study discovered that those carrying the Neanderthal haplotype were twice as likely to develop severe pneumonia from Covidand three times more likely to be hospitalised in intensive care with ventilator support.

A haplotype refersto a set of DNA variants along a single chromosome that tendto be inherited together.

However, it remains unknown whether this haplotype is more prevalent in Bergamo than in other Italian or European regions or other parts of the world.

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Epidemiologists are still uncertain about the factors contributing to northern Italy's high death toll, including age, air pollution, and the virus's early and undetected presence.

Giuseppe Remuzzi, director of the Mario Negri Institute said that this study highlights a significant section of the human genome associated with the risk of contracting and developing severe Covid, Wall Street Journal reported.

What did the study find out?

The study found that in Bergamo, 33 per cent of those with severe Covid had the Neanderthal haplotype, while it was less common in mild or asymptomatic cases. Approximately 2 per centof European and Asian genomes inherit Neanderthal genes, which have been linked to susceptibility to various diseases.

This Italian research adds to the growing evidence that a cluster of Neanderthal genes increases the risk of severe Covid.

A study in the journal Nature in September 2020 initially proposed a genomic segment from Neanderthals linked to severe Covid, carried by around 16 per cent of Europeans and 50 per centof South Asian people. In South Asia, particularly in India, the second wave of Covid in April-May 2021 wreaked havoc, with more than 100,000 cases being reported daily for consecutive days.

The Neanderthal haplotype is virtually absent in Africa, possibly contributing, along with factors like a younger population, to the lower incidence of severe cases in Africa compared to regions with better healthcare systems.

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