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A coronavirus pandemic existed in East Asia more than 20,000 years ago across China, Japan and Vietnam.
While COVID-19 claimed the lives of more than 3.8 million people and an economic waste of billions of dollars, the ancient coronavirus is still visible in the DNA of people today, The New York Times reported.
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“The discovery could have dire implications for the Covid-19 pandemic if it is not brought under control soon by vaccination,” the Times wrote.
“We should be concerned about this,” David Enard, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona who led the study, published Thursday in the journal Current Biology, told The Times. “What is happening now could go on for generations and generations.”
In 20 years, three coronaviruses have gone viral: COVID-19, SARS, and MERS, all of which have jumped into our species from bats or other mammals. Four other coronaviruses can infect humans, causing mild colds. Because coronaviruses have a steady rate of mutation, scientists can estimate when they diverge from a common ancestor. Using this technique, scientists have estimated that HCoV-HKU1 appeared in the 1950s while HCoV-NL63 dates back around 820 years.
Enard and his team examined human DNA for evidence left behind by other past coronaviruses. They looked at genes known to respond to coronaviruses, and in some populations in East Asia, they found 42 dominant versions. “It was a strong signal that people in East Asia had adjusted to an ancient coronavirus, ”writes The Times.
Scientists have estimated that genes developed their antiviral mutations between 20,000 and 25,000 years ago, most likely over the course of a few centuries, in response to a coronavirus outbreak.
Scientists noted that these 42 genes could hold promise for the development of antiviral treatments nowadays.
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