Do we, Indians have a better genome for preventing Coronavirus infections?
- blog by The Darwin's Finch
Yes, there's lot of researches going on, papers publishing out, and also fake news are spreading out...apart from all these I am going to clear out some information that is useful and will help to kill misconceptions.
First thing, Indians weren't dropped from outer space or neither we came from mars that we should have a different or special DNA than anyone else.
All humans on this planet, whether he or she passed out from Stanford University or Whats app university, have almost 99.99% of DNA exactly same and identical. What makes us different from our parents or our neighbors or foreigners just consisting of about 0.001%-0.01% of genetic dissimilarity.
We have around 5000 Covid-19 cases & 150 deaths in India so far, but we don't have anyone dying of severe Covid-19. That means people dying of this disease is because of their underlying illness (mental/physical) that might be Diabetes, Cardiovascular or Cancer. But no one has suffered with severe pneumonia-like respiratory failures.
The research says that, we, Indians have been exposed to a large spectrum of disease causing pathogens because of our position, humidity, hygiene and lot of stuffs, that has lead us generating a large number of memory T cells in our immune system that are ready to attack any foreign invaders.
First thing, Indians weren't dropped from outer space or neither we came from mars that we should have a different or special DNA than anyone else.
All humans on this planet, whether he or she passed out from Stanford University or Whats app university, have almost 99.99% of DNA exactly same and identical. What makes us different from our parents or our neighbors or foreigners just consisting of about 0.001%-0.01% of genetic dissimilarity.
Better DNA concept:-
ICMR has published a paper saying that we might have an advantage in our gene that is helping us fighting with Covid-19.We have around 5000 Covid-19 cases & 150 deaths in India so far, but we don't have anyone dying of severe Covid-19. That means people dying of this disease is because of their underlying illness (mental/physical) that might be Diabetes, Cardiovascular or Cancer. But no one has suffered with severe pneumonia-like respiratory failures.
The research says that, we, Indians have been exposed to a large spectrum of disease causing pathogens because of our position, humidity, hygiene and lot of stuffs, that has lead us generating a large number of memory T cells in our immune system that are ready to attack any foreign invaders.
Such as Tuberculosis, HIV, Malaria have plagued India for so long that definitely we have a very strong immune system against viral diseases. Our hygiene and feeding habits also influence in this spectrum.
Secondly, there are HLA genes (Human Leucocyte Antigen) that helps to present any foreign invaders in our body to T cells, so that T cell can find and kill it before causing disease. In a deeper immunological views, the pathogens invading in our body must form a complex with HLA system and if it doesn't make association with HLA, then T cells won't be able to detect and delete the pathogen.
Research has shown that, Indian population possesses a high genetic diversity of HLA gene than any other countries because of the reasons mentioned above and we also possess some of the novel (new) HLA genes whose function is still unknown.
Conclusions:-
So, perhaps its the fact that because of our higher immunity towards viral infections, we might have an advantage to Covid-19.But, these all are on research level, we dont have any solid evidences that its what helping us in restricting Covid-19 but of course we will have all the data very soon.
Till that, we need to follow strict precautions to prevent this disease because as per now, we only can prevent the disease from happening but we can't treat the disease that already happened.
STAY HOME STAY SAFE
The Darwin's Finch
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