DNA from ancient Europeans reveals surprising multiple sclerosis origins (www.reuters.com)

submitted 9 months ago by memfree@beehaw.org to c/science@beehaw.org

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One striking discovery related to MS, a chronic disease of the brain and spinal cord that is considered an autoimmune disorder in which the body mistakenly attacks itself.

The researchers identified a pivotal migration event about 5,000 years ago at the start of the Bronze Age when livestock herders called the Yamnaya people moved into Western Europe from an area that includes modern Ukraine and southern Russia.

They carried genetic traits that at the time were beneficial, protective against infections that could arise from their sheep and cattle. As sanitary conditions improved over the millennia, these same variants increased MS risk.

links:

archive of reuters piece: https://archive.ph/aXcpn
more depth: https://phys.org/news/2024-01-ancient-human-dna-hints-multiple.html
50+ page paper: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.23.509097v1.full

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[-] k_rol@lemmy.ca 9 points 9 months ago

What I conclude from this is that people with MS should stop being clean.

[-] ghostdog@beehaw.org 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

you’re not entirely wrong about that. there’s lots of evidence suggesting that sanitized environments and the development of autoimmune diseases (like multiple sclerosis) are correlated.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micinf.2010.02.002

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_mismatch?wprov=sfti1