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Humans Might Be So Sickly Because We Evolved to Avoid a Single Devastating Disease:
Sialic acids are a diverse group of carbohydrates that blossom like leaves from the tips of proteins covering the surfaces of human cells.
[...] Changes in sialic acid markers can give rise to a number of diseases. But it was one specific change particular to all humans that the researchers here were most keen to gain an understanding of.
Most mammals – including closely related apes – have a compound called N-glycolylneuraminic acid, or Neu5Gc. We've known for some time that the gene for this version of sialic acid is broken in us, leaving its precursor form, N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac), to do its job.
Researchers previously speculated that this mutation was selected for in humans to make it harder for devastating malarial parasites such as Plasmodium knowlesi to latch onto red blood cells.
[...] Since chimpanzees retain the gene for Neu5Gc, the mutation must have occurred within the past 6 million years or so, sometime after we parted ways from one another.
[...] This most recent study shows Neanderthals and Denisovans share our variant of sialic acid, meaning the change happened before our branch of the family tree separated roughly 400,000 to 800,000 years ago.
[...] To differentiate between cells that belong to us from possible invaders, our immune cells are armed with a scanning chemical called sialic acid-binding immunoglobulin-type lectins. Or Siglecs for short.
When an inspection occurs, if a cell's sialic acid marker isn't up to scratch, it's curtains for that cell. Naturally, any changes to our sialic acid name-tag would imply our system of Siglecs would have needed adjusting as well.
Sure enough, on further investigation the researchers found significant mutations among a cluster of Siglec genes that are common to humans and their ilk, but not great apes.
[...] Siglec expression is linked with conditions such as asthma and Alzheimer's disease, raising the possibility that protection from a devastating disease put us at risk of other conditions.
Journal Reference:
Naazneen Khan, Marc de Manuel, Stephane Peyregne, et al. Multiple Genomic Events Altering Hominin SIGLEC Biology and Innate Immunity Predated the Common Ancestor of Humans and Archaic Hominins [open], Genome Biology and Evolution (DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evaa125)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 10 2020, @11:50AM (7 children)
Hence the orange clown refusal to endorse masks, he'd rather reign over a population of apes and sacrifice the siglec species.
His fault though, the sapiens refused to inject themselves with bleach and they do wear a mask.
I bet Trump is immune to Alzheimer's, not enough neurons [twitter.com] subject to degeneration to start with.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 10 2020, @12:09PM (1 child)
Thing is, the actual sapients are able to count and to reason, while your conspecifics behave like constitutionally incapable of either.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 10 2020, @12:17PM
If you have something to say to his orange clownness, better use Twitter. He's definitely not reading S/N, TMB doesn't kiss his ass deep enough.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Bot on Monday August 10 2020, @03:51PM (4 children)
Leftist: the guy strongly believing CO2 is the root of all evil, unless you breath it.
I wouldn't need to delve into mask good mask bad issues, we will have a definitive response in a matter of months.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Monday August 10 2020, @06:13PM (3 children)
Rightists: People who are so scientifically ignorant they think humans breathe C02 and not Oxygen.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Monday August 10 2020, @07:14PM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2020, @12:15AM (1 child)
Thanks for caring enough about other people to go through the inconvenience, but there have been numerous examples of people measuring their blood oxygen levels and found that even strenuous exercise does not lower the blood oxygen levels.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday August 11 2020, @03:13AM
A 10% CO2 atmosphere will kill you even if the rest of it is made of oxygen. At 30% concentration, you'll pass out in seconds. citation [nih.gov] if you need it.
This is not to say that wearing a mask will even intoxicate you with CO2 [snopes.com].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford