The Relationship Between Autoimmune Disease and Black Plague Defense

 People with autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis can relate to the widespread swelling and excruciating agony it causes. However, in a strange twist of evolution, it appears that this illness is related to a biological response against a deadly threat in the past.

Recently, it has been shown that the bubonic plague in the Middle Ages may have caused a gene mutation that prevented people from dying from the Black Death but increased their chance of inheriting immunological problems.

This DNA mutation, which shields humans against the plague, was discovered by Nature. The ground-breaking research shows how rapidly individuals can adjust to environmental dangers, but doing so might have costs.

Chaos caused by the Black Death

The Black Death, often known as the second coming of the plague, was a terrible pandemic that began in Europe about 1347 and spread to areas of North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. In just four years, the population of some places in Europe decreased by 30 to 50%.

Details about the Black Death:

According to a research published in Nature, central Asia was the birthplace of the Black Death's initial strain.

The bacteria had just recently spread from rodents to people when the victims became ill.

    The Yersinia pestis bacteria was responsible for the plague. Fleas that fed on black rats carried this bacteria for a very long time. The fleas jumped to people to eat as rat colonies declined. There were frequent outbreaks of the plague, including one in the English community of Eyam in 1665. During the 14-month quarantine, the village's population decreased by 47%.

Given the disease's long-lasting effects, a global team of researchers from the United States, Canada, Denmark, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States attempted to discover how survivors adjusted while also looking into the possibility that a gene mutation could be to blame.

DNA samples from persons who passed away before, during, and after the epidemic were required by researchers in order to ascertain whether a gene mutation was involved.