Abstract
Both origin and evolution of tuberculosis and its pathogens (Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex) are not fully understood. The paleopathological investigation of human remains offers a unique insight into the molecular evolution and spread including correlative data of the environment. The molecular analysis of material from Egypt (3000–500 BC), Sudan (200–600 AD), Hungary (600–1700 AD), Latvia (1200–1600 AD), and South Germany (1400–1800 AD) urprisingly revealed constantly high frequencies of tuberculosis in all different time periods excluding significant environmental influence on tuberculosis spread. The typing of various mycobacteria strains provides evidence for ancestral M. tuberculosis strains in Pre- to early Egyptian dynastic material (3500–2650 BC), while typical M. africanum signatures were detected in a Middle Kingdom tomb (2050–1650 BC). Samples from the New Kingdom to Late Period (1500–500 BC) indicated modern M. tuberculosis strains. No evidence was seen for M. bovis in Egyptian material while M. bovis signatures were first identified in Siberian biomaterial dating 2000 years before present. These results contraindicates the theory that M. tuberculosis evolved from M. bovis during early domestication in the region of the “Fertile Crescent,” but supports the scenario that M. tuberculosis probably derived from an ancestral progenitor strain. The environmental influence of this evolutionary scenario deserves continuing intense evaluation.
Highlights
Today, tuberculosis is still a major predator of mankind causing every year millions of deaths worldwide
Any systemic spread by the blood stream involves bone tissue with the most preferred osseous lesions occurring in the vertebral bodies
The most recent technical improvements of polychain reaction (PCR) techniques, allow the identification and characterization of gene segments in biomedical remains of hundreds to Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Infectious Diseases thousands of years of age [1]. This has been made possible since PCR can amplify even minute amounts of DNA, such as the very small amounts of intact DNA-molecules residing in ancient biomaterial, for example, in bone or mummified soft tissues
Summary
Tuberculosis is still a major predator of mankind causing every year millions of deaths worldwide. All four strains, termed M. tuberculosis, M. bovis, M. africanum, M. canetti, lead to an identical clinical pattern Few other mycobacteria, such as M. avium and M. kansasii, may induce granulomatous pulmonary infection, frequently, but not exclusively in immunocompromised patients, such as in HIV-infected individuals. The most recent technical improvements of polychain reaction (PCR) techniques, allow the identification and characterization of gene segments in biomedical remains of hundreds to Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Infectious Diseases thousands of years of age [1] This has been made possible since PCR can amplify even minute amounts of DNA, such as the very small amounts of intact DNA-molecules residing in ancient biomaterial, for example, in bone or mummified soft tissues. In this report we describe the current status of ancient mycobacterial DNA-analysis in ancient human remains with particular reference to the present scenario of the evolution of human tuberculosis and propose initial assumptions on the influence of environment factors
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