科学美国人60秒 SSS 新冠肺炎与种族基因有关（在线收听）

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是克里斯托弗·英塔利亚塔。

The risk factors for COVID-19 are many: old age, obesity, heart conditions. But early genetic studies have identified another trait that some people who develop severe COVID-19 seem to share: a cluster of genetic variations on their third chromosome.

COVID-19 的风险因素有很多：高龄、肥胖、心脏病。但是早期的遗传研究已经确定了一些患有严重COVID-19 的人似乎共有的另一个特征：他们的第三条染色体上的一组遗传变异。

And that DNA sequence likely derives from Neandertals, says Hugo Zeberg of the Max Planck Institute.

马克斯普朗克研究所的雨果·泽伯格说，该 DNA 序列可能来自尼安德特人。

“It’s quite striking this variant has lingered on for 50,000 years.”

“令人惊讶的是，这种变体已经存在了 50,000 年。”

Fifty thousand years ago is the approximate time humans and Neandertals interbred. And over the millennia, these Neandertal variants have become more common in some Homo sapiens populations than others.

五万年前是人类和尼安德特人交配的大致时间。几千年来，这些尼安德特人的变种在一些智人人群中变得比其他人更常见。

For example, 16 percent of people of European descent carry at least one copy of the Neandertal stretch. Half of South Asians do—and nearly two thirds of Bangladeshis.

例如，16%的欧洲后裔携带至少一个尼安德特人后裔的基因。一半的南亚人和近三分之二的孟加拉人都是如此。

“And it’s fascinating it is so high—points to the fact that it must have been beneficial in the past. It’s much higher than we expect. And then it’s totally expunged in East Asia and China. So something has happened, driving the frequency up in certain places and removing it totally in other places.”

“而且它是如此之高令人着迷——表明它在过去一定是有益的。它比我们预期的要高得多。然后它在东亚和中国完全消失了。所以发生了一些事情，在某些地方提高了频率，而在其他地方完全消除了。”

The details are in the journal Nature.

详细信息发表在《自然》杂志上。

Zeberg and his colleague write that perhaps the Neandertal DNA happens to boost the risk of developing severe COVID-19—and they point to the fact that in the U.K., people of Bangladeshi descent have twice the risk of dying of COVID-19 than the general population.

泽伯格和他的同事写道，也许尼安德特人的 DNA 碰巧会增加患严重 COVID-19 的风险——他们指出，在英国，孟加拉裔人死于 COVID-19 的风险是一般人口的两倍。

But as epidemiologist Keith Neal of the University of Nottingham pointed out via e-mail, people of African descent in the U.K. are also being hurt more by the virus—despite having hardly any Neandertal genes.

但正如诺丁汉大学的流行病学家基思·尼尔通过电子邮件指出的那样，英国的非洲人后裔也受到了更多的病毒伤害——尽管他们几乎没有任何尼安德特人的基因。

Instead it’s social factors—like crowded, multigenerational households or working frontline jobs—that are more likely to be driving the trends seen in the U.K.

相反，是社会因素——比如拥挤的多代家庭或一线工作——更有可能推动英国的趋势。

That’s according to Andrew Hayward, director of the Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care at University College London.

这是伦敦大学学院流行病学和卫生保健研究所主任安德鲁·海沃德所说的。

And as both epidemiologists pointed out, it’s worth remembering that you can only develop severe COVID-19 if you’re exposed to the virus in the first place.

正如这两位流行病学家所指出的，值得记住的是，只有在你首先接触到病毒的情况下，你才会患上严重的COVID-19。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·英塔利亚塔。