Humans co-evolved with immune-related diseases -- and it's still happening

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-11/cp-hcw112019.php

News Release 27-Nov-2019
Cell Press

Some of the same mutations allowing humans to fend off deadly infections also make us more prone to certain inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, such as Crohn's disease. In a Review published November 27 in the journal Trends in Immunology, researchers describe how ancestral origins impact the likelihood that people of African or Eurasian descent might develop immune-related diseases. The authors also share evidence that the human immune system is still evolving depending on a person's location or lifestyle.

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For example, the malaria parasite Plasmodium sp. has infected African populations for millions of years. Because of this, evolutionary processes have selected people with DNA that favors resistance to infections by causing more inflammation in the body. In doing so, this has also contributed to making modern Africans prone to developing cardiovascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis, later in life.

Dominguez-Andres and Netea also write about how the early-human ancestors of Eurasians lived in regions still inhabited by Neanderthals and interbred. Today, people with remainders of Neanderthal DNA can be more resistant against HIV-1 and 'staph' infections, but are also more likely to develop allergies, asthma, and hay fever.

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