Neanderthals and SARS-CoV-2
What do Neanderthals have to do with SARS-CoV-2?
Geneticist Svante Pääbo has been awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his findings based on the reconstructed genetic material of early humans. The surprise is that we today have more in common with Neanderthals than was previously known.
For example, some genes influence how our immune system reacts to pathogens. This also applies to the course of a Sars-CoV-2 infection: people with a certain Neanderthal variant on the third chromosome have an increased risk of a severe course of COVID-19 disease. Pääbo has made similar findings for pain perception: People who carry the Neanderthal variant of the ion channel responsible for the pain impulse experience stronger pain.
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