Regarding coronavirus, it has been told that this infectious disease has appeared in East Asia 20 thousand years ago. Evidence of this has been found in the DNA of the people of East Asia.
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Coronavirus, which is causing havoc around the world, may have wreaked havoc in East Asia more than 20,000 years ago. Its remains have been found in the DNA of the people of modern China, Japan and Vietnam. Research published in Current Biology has found evidence of genetic adaptation to the coronavirus family of viruses in 42 genes from modern populations in these regions.
The COVID-19 global epidemic spread due to the corona virus SARS-CoV-2 has killed more than 38 lakh people worldwide so far. Due to this pandemic, the global economy has suffered economic losses of billions of dollars so far. The coronavirus family also includes related MERS and SARS viruses, which have caused many fatal infections over the past 20 years.
In the 20th century, people faced three epidemics alone
The results show how tracing the genetic remnants of historical viral outbreaks can help us treat future outbreaks. Global pandemics are probably as old as human history. We have faced global pandemics before. In the 20th century alone, three types of influenza virus—the ‘Spanish flu’ of 1918–20, the ‘Asian flu’ of 1957–58, and the ‘Hong Kong flu’ of 1968–69—each caused widespread destruction, killing millions of people. Had known
What is the purpose of virus?
The history of infections caused by viruses and other pathogens goes back thousands of years. After the body adapts to these viruses, many genetic marks are left behind. Geneticists have developed impressive statistical tools over the past few decades to trace genetic traces of adaptation events in the body. These genetic remains are present in the genomes of people today.
Viruses are simple organisms that have one purpose: to make more copies of themselves. But their simple biological structure means that they cannot reproduce independently. Instead, they have to invade the cells of other organisms and take over their molecular machinery. The virus interacts with and binds to specific proteins produced from host cells, which we call viral interacting proteins (VIPs).
traces of the ancient coronavirus
The research applied state-of-the-art computational analysis to the genomes of more than 2,500 people from 26 countries around the world. This provided evidence of adaptation in 42 different genes in humans that describe VIP. These VIP signs were present in populations of only five locations, and all of these locations were from East Asia. The virus, which appeared in the past of the corona virus family, probably originated in these places.
This means that the ancestors of modern East Asian countries may have been exposed to the coronavirus about 25,000 years ago. Subsequently, further testing revealed that 42 VIPs are mainly found in the lungs, which are most affected by COVID-19. It has also been confirmed that these VIPs directly contact the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the current pandemic.
Other independent studies have also shown that mutations in the VIP gene can interfere with the susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 and the severity of its symptoms. In addition, several VIP genes are either currently being used as drug targets for COVID-19 treatment or are part of clinical trials.
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