Scientists have uncovered the secret of innate immunity of Arctic residents

Employees of the Research Institute of Medical Problems of the North have studied genetic features characteristic of the population of the Arctic territories of Russia and helping to resist, in particular, infectious diseases. The study led to some curious conclusions.

Scientists were interested in genes responsible for so-called innate immunity, which differs from acquired immunity. Analyzing the frequency of manifestation of such genes in populations of indigenous inhabitants of the Arctic territories of Siberia - Dolgans, Nganasans, Nenets - and comparing these data with information about the Russian population of Siberians, the researchers understood why representatives of one ethnic group are less susceptible to certain diseases than representatives of another.

Specialists were able to explain why Arctic natives are better able to cope with infections, while Caucasians living here are more successful in resisting diseases of non-infectious origin. It turns out that all the matter (or at least one of the reasons) - in the activity of certain populations of proteins-lectins - molecules that recognize foreign elements in the body and trigger the process of their destruction, said in the Krasnoyarsk Research Center of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

According to scientists, it is the activity of such proteins that provides the indigenous peoples of the Arctic with a powerful defense in the form of innate immunity from the first days of life.

The researchers also note that the relatively low level of lectin proteins in, for example, Caucasians is probably associated with greater pharmaceutical and hygienic protection than in the indigenous northerners, who are not spoiled by civilization.