October
21
/ 2022
We may have a lot more to thank (or curse) our ancestors for than we realize. When the Black Death or the bubonic plague swept through Europe 700 years ago, it literally killed 50% of the population. A fabulous new study which analyzed the DNA of these medieval skeletons from the 1300s has found certain mutations that helped people survive the plague, which are linked to certain autoimmune diseases affecting people even today. ERAP2 and the Black Death: A Gene with Higher Rates of Survival? The Nature study highlighted how survivors of the plague had a “good” variant of a particular gene called ERAP2, which contributed to much higher rates of survival. The plague is believed to have driven the
