It turns out that a section of our #DNA that we received from Neanderthals is particularly associated with outcomes (mild, severe) of #COVID19 infections.
This paper outlines an approach ranging from population genetics to functional #genomics in which the researchers identified four important #alleles and their likely #regulatory function.
Title: "Regulatory dissection of the severe #COVID-19 risk locus introgressed by #Neanderthals" (Jagoda et al. 2023)
Key functional variants, discovered using Massively Parallel Reporter Assay (MPRA) and reporter assays in the context of SARS-CoV-2 infection, support the importance of two critical chemokine receptor genes CCR1 and CCR5 in severe Covid-19 illness.
