Coronavirus genetic risk factor inherited from Neanderthals – new study

Patients carrying a specific DNA sequence inherited from Neanderthals, a prehistoric human population that lived in Eurasia between 200,000 and 35,000 years ago, are more likely to develop a severe form of COVID-19, two Swedish scientists discovered. “A little over a week ago, a vast amount of data about the genetic profile of hospitalized patients from different parts of the world was released,” Hugo Zeberg, an expert in Neanderthal genome from the Department of Neuroscience at the...