Monday, September 13, 2021

Our Oldest Viral Defense System...

 ...could be in our genes.

So, a lot of our "junk" DNA is fossil strands of virii. (Yes, a virus can rewrite your DNA, but the result is usually quarantined. There are a few exceptions where evolution has found the virus useful, which includes the mammalian placenta.

These are called EVE.

Bats and marsupials have more EVA than most mammals. And bats are well known for being highly resistant to viruses.

Marsupials, meanwhile, move on to the pouch stage of development without functioning immune systems.

Turns out these are not coincidences. It turns out that the reason we store all the viral DNA we can is so that we can use it to create antivirals.

Mammals don't do this as much because we have developed other immune system aspects, but there's still the possibility that this ancient defense system is still active and usable.

Does generational exposure to an ancient coronavirus explain why some people are "mysteriously" resistant to COVID-19?

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