Evidence found of a viral epidemic 25000 years back

Hari Krishnan R, SRM Institute of Science and Technology

SARS-CoV (2002), MERS-CoV (2006), and ongoing SARS-CoV2 (2019) are a few of the most devastating pandemics in history. All of these were caused by Coronaviruses. A recent study has identified a possible ancient coronavirus epidemic that happened around 20,000 years ago in East Asia regions. This is linked to a selection event that caused the adaptation of virus interacting proteins. These virus-interacting proteins (VIPs) are usually those that play a role in the host defense by interacting with the virus. Using various evolutionary tools, it was predicted that this event happened due to selection pressure in the ancient East Asia populations.

Covid-interacting proteins (CoV-VIPs)

An international study performed by a group of scientists aimed to find out whether coronavirus epidemics in the past have caused adaptation of virus-interacting proteins (VIPs). VIPs have a more functional impact on viruses than any other protein. They analyzed around 420 VIPs that are coronavirus specific from 26 human populations using data from a 1000 genomes project. Out of the 420 VIPs, 332 are SARS-CoV2 interacting proteins identified by mass spectrometry, and the other 88 are from other coronavirus family viruses. 

Evidence of a viral epidemic 25000 years ago

Evolutionary analysis showed evidence of a strong selective sweep signal (the selection that drives fixation of a beneficial mutant in a population) at CoV-VIPs. These were only observed in East Asia populations (China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia, etc.), suggesting that a previous coronavirus-related epidemic prompted an adaptation event in East Asian ancestors. Further, they identified 42 CoV-VIPs that have come under positive selection events from around 25000 years (~900 generations) that exhibit an adaptive response. 50% of these 42 CoV-VIPs were found to have high anti-viral or pro-viral activities, which supported the claim that this selection event likely happened due to a viral epidemic. 

They also infer that these adaptive mutations are found near the regulatory variants in lungs and other tissues infected by COVID-19. British cohorts were used to evaluate the SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and it was found that the selected 42 VIPs were thought to contribute to the COVID-19 aetiology of the modern British population. This is important because four genes -SMAD3, IMPDH2, PPIB, and GPX1- that are a part of the CoV-VIPs are potential drug targets and there are ongoing clinical trials to investigate their therapeutic efficiency. These four genes are targeted by a set of eleven drugs. Further, five additional CoV-VIPs are targeted by multiple drugs for the treatment of various COVID-19 symptoms. An additional six genes are also called “druggable genomes” and are potential candidates for drug development.

Significance of the study

Exploring ancient viral pandemics can help us understand how different human populations adapt to specific genes that helped them combat viruses. It is also implied that specific human populations with adaptation do not necessarily have a difference in genetic susceptibility to the normal populations. Despite the availability of modern technology in biomedical and healthcare, COVID-19 has emphasized the vulnerability of human populations and studies like these can help us identify and understand viruses that caused pandemics and may cause pandemics in the future. Eventually, these data would help us to identify dangerous viruses and give us a head start for developing vaccines and diagnostics against them.

Also read: Nanodecoys from special lung cells can kill SARS-CoV2

Source:-

1. Souilmi, Y., Lauterbur, M. E., Tobler, R., Huber, C. D., Johar, A. S., Moradi, S. V., Johnston, W. A., Krogan, N. J., Alexandrov, K., & Enard, D. (2021). An ancient viral epidemic involving host coronavirus interacting genes more than 20,000 years ago in East Asia. Current Biology. Published. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.05.067 
2. Staff, S. X. (2021, June 24). Genome study reveals East Asian coronavirus epidemic 20,000 years ago. Phys.Org. https://phys.org/news/2021-06-genome-reveals-east-asian-coronavirus.html

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About the Author- Hari Krishnan is a research enthusiast in Cell biology and Cell signalling. He is currently a final year Biotechnology Engineering student. He is a prolific Scientific writer with vast knowledge in diverse backgrounds of biotechnology. He is constantly focused on improving his knowledge and laboratory skills through various internships. A Chennai native, Hari is a spicy food lover and passionate about music and sports.

Publications-

1. Krishnan, H. (2021). COMPARISON OF THE DRUG ENTRAPMENT EFFICIENCY OF ALMOND GUM (Badam Pisin) TO SPAN-60 NIOSOMES BY FOLIN- CIOCALTEU ASSAY. BioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.03.438312 
2. Krishnan, H. (2020). TELOMERASE TARGETING IN CANCER. International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers12082260