Researchers Find Link to Nerve Disease in Ancient DNA

2024-01-19

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  • Genetic researchers at the University of Cambridge in Britain say ancient DNA shows why northern Europeans have a higher risk of getting a nerve disease than other Europeans.
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  • The disease is called multiple sclerosis or MS.
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  • The researchers said the risk lies in genes from horse-riding cattle herders who entered northern Europe about 5,000 years ago.
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  • The findings come from a huge project to compare modern DNA with ancient genetic material taken from human remains including teeth and bones.
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  • A study released last year said it identified the earliest evidence of horse riding in people called the Yamnaya.
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  • The scientists say they lived 4,500 to 5,000 years ago during the Bronze Age period of human history.
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  • The Yamnaya moved from the grasslands of what is now Ukraine and Russia into northwestern Europe.
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  • However, the researchers say those people carried gene versions that today are known to increase a person's risk of multiple sclerosis.
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  • The researchers added that they believe the same genes protected those herders from infections from their cattle and sheep.
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  • The research was published in Nature, a scientific publication.
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  • William Barrie is a genetic researcher at Cambridge.
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  • He helped write the study. He said everyone involved was surprised.
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  • "These variants were giving these people an advantage of some kind," he said.
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  • The finding was made possible by a gene bank with thousands of examples of early humans in Europe and western Asia.
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  • That project is led by Eske Willerslev of Cambridge and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
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  • While MS can strike any population it is most common among white descendants of northern Europeans.
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  • Scientists have been unable to explain why.
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  • The cause of the disease is not known.
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  • However, one theory is that infections could cause it in people who have certain genetic qualities.
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  • Scientists say they have found 230 genetic variants that might increase the risk of MS.
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  • The researchers studied DNA from about 1,600 ancient Eurasians.
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  • They used the information to develop of map of population movements in northern Europe.
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  • They said farmers from the Middle East began pushing out hunter-gatherers about 5,000 years ago.
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  • Then the Yamnaya moved in.
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  • They traveled with horses and wagons and herded cattle and sheep.
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  • The research team compared the ancient DNA to the genetic information of 400,000 modern-day people stored in UK Biobank in Britain.
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  • They wanted to see if MS-linked genetic variations persisted in the north.
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  • That is the part of Europe where the Yamnaya moved, rather than southern Europe.
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  • In what is now Denmark, the Yamnaya replaced ancient farmers, making them the closest ancestors of modern Danes, Willerslev said.
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  • Rates of MS are especially high in the northern part of Europe known as Scandinavia.
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  • The findings raise additional questions and suggest a need for more research.
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  • One of the writers of the study, Astrid Iverson of Oxford University, questioned why a gene variant that seems to have strengthened immunity later plays a part in causing what is believed to be an autoimmune disease.
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  • Differences in how modern humans are exposed to animal germs might push the immune system out of balance, she said.
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  • I'm Mario Ritter, Jr.