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Also known as Dupuytren’s disease, ‘Viking disease’ hand disorder — a condition in which one or more fingers become permanently bent in a flexed position — is much more common in Northern Europeans than in those of African ancestry.
Genetic risk factors for Dupuytren’s disease are inherited from Neanderthals. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.
Dupuytren’s disease is a fibrosing disorder of the palmar fascia, which may lead to an irreducible and disabling progressive flexion of the fingers.
Although the condition can affect any finger, the ring and middle fingers are most often afflicted.
Dupuytren’s disease is considered to be one of the most common hereditary disorders of the connective tissue, preferentially affecting individuals from Northern Europe.
After 60 years of age, its prevalence is high in Norway (46%), Scotland (39%), Iceland (33%) and Australia (28%).
Scientists have previously identified several risk factors for the condition, including age, alcohol consumption, diabetes, and genetic predisposition.
In 1999, a Danish study reported 80% heritability for the condition, indicating a strong genetic influence. The condition is much more common in people of Northern European ancestry.
“There are geographical differences in the extent of genetic ancestry linking present-day humans to now-extinct groups,” said Karolinska Institutet researcher Hugo Zeberg and colleagues.
“People from Africa south of the Sahara have little ancestry from Neanderthals or Denisovans, who that lived in Europe and Asia until at least 42,000 years ago.”
“In contrast, people with roots outside of Africa inherited as much as 2% of their genome from Neanderthals and some populations in Asia today have up to 5% Denisovan ancestry.”
“Given these regional differences, archaic gene variants can contribute to characteristics or diseases found primarily in certain populations.”
In their new research, the researchers aimed to investigate the genetic origins of Dupuytren’s disease.
They used data from 7,871 cases and 645,880 controls from the UK Biobank, the FinnGen R7 collection, and the Michigan Genomics Initiative to identify genetic risk variants for the disease.
They found 61 genome-wide significant variants associated with Dupuytren’s disease.
Further analysis showed that three of these variants are of Neanderthal origin, including the second and third most strongly associated ones.
The finding that two of the most important genetic risk factors for Dupuytren’s disease are of Neanderthal origin leads the scientists to conclude that Neanderthal ancestry is a significant factor in explaining the prevalence of the disease in Europe today.
“This is a case where the meeting with Neanderthals has affected who suffers from illness, although we should not exaggerate the connection between Neanderthals and Vikings,” Dr. Zeberg said.
A paper describing the research will be published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.
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Richard Ågren et al. 2023. Major genetic risk factors for Dupuytren’s disease are inherited from Neandertals. Molecular Biology and Evolution, in press; doi: 10.1093/molbev/msad130
