An illustration of a Neanderthal and a sketch of ring finger secured a bent position as seen in Dupuytrens disease, informally called the “Viking illness.” New research finds that the genetic origins of “Viking illness,” a condition that impacts older Northern European men, can be traced back to Neanderthals. Credit: Hugo Zeberg
Lots of guys in northern Europe over the age of 60 suffer from the so-called Viking illness, which implies that the fingers lock in a bent position. Now scientists at Karolinska Institutet, together with colleagues, have used data from over 7,000 impacted people to try to find genetic threat aspects for the illness. The findings, which have actually been released in Molecular Biology and Evolution, show that 3 of the greatest threat aspects are inherited from Neanderthals.
The condition is in some cases called the Viking illness due to the fact that it generally affects people with northern European origins. The disease is significantly more typical in men than females and generally starts as a lump in the palm of the hand that triggers and grows one or more fingers to lock in a bent position.
Hugo Zeberg, assistant teacher at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet. Credit: Alexander Donka
The scientists in the study, led by Hugo Zeberg from Karolinska Institutet and Svante Pääbo from Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, set out to investigate whether genetic versions acquired from Neanderthals are associated with the illness.
New research study finds that the genetic origins of “Viking disease,” a condition that impacts older Northern European males, can be traced back to Neanderthals. Lots of men in northern Europe over the age of 60 suffer from the so-called Viking illness, which implies that the fingers lock in a bent position. Now scientists at Karolinska Institutet, together with colleagues, have actually utilized data from over 7,000 affected individuals to look for genetic danger aspects for the disease. The condition is sometimes called the Viking illness because it generally affects people with northern European origins.
Neanderthals lived in Europe and western Asia up until about 40,000 years ago, when they were changed by modern-day human beings. Nevertheless before Neanderthals disappeared, they combined with modern humans. As an outcome, between one and 2 percent of the genomes of individuals with roots beyond Africa come from Neanderthals.
” Since Dupuytrens contracture is hardly ever seen in individuals of African descent, we questioned whether gene variations from Neanderthals can partially describe why people outside of Africa are affected,” states Hugo Zeberg, assistant professor at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet.
The scientists used data from 3 large scientific accomplices in the United States, UK, and Finland, which permitted them to compare the genomes of 7,871 sufferers and 645,880 healthy controls. They recognized 61 hereditary danger elements for Dupuytrens contracture. The researchers discovered that 3 of these were inherited from Neanderthals, and these included the second and 3rd essential risk aspects.
The study is further evidence that the intermingling between Neanderthals and our ancestors has crucial consequences for the occurrence of some illness, particularly among specific groups.
” This is a case where the meeting with Neanderthals has actually affected who suffers from illness, although we should not overemphasize the connection between Neanderthals and Vikings,” says Hugo Zeberg.
Reference: “Major Genetic Risk Factors for Dupuytrens Disease Are Inherited From Neandertals” by Richard Ågren, Snehal Patil, Xiang Zhou, FinnGen, Kristoffer Sahlholm, Svante Pääbo and Hugo Zeberg, 14 June 2023, Molecular Biology and Evolution.DOI: 10.1093/ molbev/msad130.
The research study was financed by The Swedish Research Council, The Swedish Brain Foundation, The Erik Philip-Sörensen Foundation, Petrus och Augusta Hedlunds Stiftelse, and Emil och Wera Cornells Stiftelse.