"The coronavirus is cool and peace for the Arabs in the Middle East." Such a publication on his page on the social network was made by the president of the Society of Genetic Engineers of Jordan. He pointed to the results of the study, which explain why the population of Arab countries is resistant to coronavirus infection, unlike Europeans.
The Society of Genetic Engineers of Jordan has published part of a study that explains the greater resistance of the Arabs to the coronavirus, in contrast to the inhabitants of Western countries.
On Sunday, the president of the Ramzi Fouda Society issued a statement posted on the association's Facebook page: "The coronavirus is cool and peace for Arabs in the Middle East."
He pointed to the results of a study conducted by the Society led by Walid al-Zuweid, Hazem Haddad and their team, which was presented as part of the work of the Jordanian Ministry of Higher Education Research Foundation.
According to the data obtained, the Middle Eastern Arabs have a single nucleotide polymorphism (genetic SNPS), which distinguishes them from the inhabitants of East Asia and Europe and allows their bodies to actively fight the virus.
As Fouda explained, Arabs in the Middle East have ACE2 protein in their lung cells in a 1: 1000 ratio, compared to East Asians and Europeans. According to the Bioinformatics website, the virus attacks receptors present on the surface of the ACE2 lung cell.
The study authors give the following example: “If one virus binds to a lung cell of a person of Arab Middle Eastern origin, then 1000 viruses will be associated with a lung cell of an East Asian or European. In other words, it will be much easier for the immune system to withstand the least number of viruses.”
According to the president of the Society of Genetic Engineers, the study took as a basis the fact that the influenza virus in East Asia and Europe is sometimes fatal, and in the Arab countries of the Middle East, it is considered a completely common disease.
In addition, Israeli statistics were taken into account in order to compare with the Arab population in the West Bank, as they live in the same environment and in the same geographic area. There is a large difference in the number of infections and death rates, since the genetic basis of the virus has not changed or mutated.