Researchers not so long ago asked the question from whom, after all, the papilloma virus passed to a person. And after a while the answer was found. Neanderthals were the culprits of this disease.
The investigation was described on its pages by PLOS Pathogens. It is reported that in order to find the truth, researchers have done a lot of work. Of the 600 currently known HPV strains, the two most dangerous were selected - HPV16 and HPV18. It is these two viruses that cause cervical cancer in women, as well as other dangerous diseases of the genital organs of people.
It is known that most often strains 16 and 18 pass from person to person sexually, but there is also the possibility of getting a dangerous virus from mother to her child (in case she was infected with one of these strains). In order to understand how HPV16 and HPV18 appeared in the human body, scientists studied rhesus monkeys and saimiri that have HPV16.
It turned out that these viruses are genetically similar. Therefore, the researchers came to the conclusion that these HPVs were formed even before they entered the human body. After that, researchers studied 212 genotypes of HPV16. This led them to believe that the virus began to develop in the human body about 600 thousand years ago, which coincides with the dispersal of the Neanderthals across the continent.
Dmitry Kornienko
