@article{24680,
  keywords = {DNA, Europe, leprosy, Medieval, Migration, Tuberculosis},
  author = {Spigelman M and Rubini M and Zaio P and Teschler-Nicola M and Donoghue H and Michael Taylor  and Marcsik Ó and Pinhasi R and Erdal Y and Likovsky J and Belcastro MG and Mariotti V and Riga A and Besra G and Lee O and Wu H and Minnikin D and Bull I and Molnár E and Pálfi G and Pap  and Velemínsky P and O’Grady J},
  title = {A migration-driven model for the historical spread of leprosy in medieval Eastern and Central Europe},
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<p>Leprosy was rare in Europe during the Roman period, yet its prevalence increased dramatically in medieval times. We examined human remains, with paleopathological lesions indicative of leprosy, dated to the 6<sup>th</sup> –11<sup>th</sup> century AD, from Central and Eastern Europe and Byzantine Anatolia. Analysis of ancient DNA and bacterial cell wall lipid biomarkers revealed <em>Mycobacterium leprae</em> in skeletal remains from 6<sup>th</sup>–8<sup>th</sup> century Northern Italy, 7<sup>th</sup>–11<sup>th</sup> century Hungary, 8<sup>th</sup>–9<sup>th</sup> century Austria, the Slavic Greater Moravian Empire of the 9<sup>th</sup>–10<sup>th</sup> century and 8<sup>th</sup>–10<sup>th</sup> century Byzantine samples from Northern Anatolia. These data were analyzed alongside findings published by others. <em>M. leprae</em> is an obligate human pathogen that has undergone an evolutionary bottleneck followed by clonal expansion. Therefore <em>M. leprae</em> genotypes and sub-genotypes give information about the human populations they have infected and their migration. Although data are limited, genotyping demonstrates that historical <em>M. leprae</em> from Byzantine Anatolia, Eastern and Central Europe resembles modern strains in Asia Minor rather than the recently characterized historical strains from North West Europe. The westward migration of peoples from Central Asia in the first millennium may have introduced different <em>M. leprae</em> strains into medieval Europe and certainly would have facilitated the spread of any existing leprosy. The subsequent decline of <em>M. leprae</em> in Europe may be due to increased host resistance. However, molecular evidence of historical leprosy and tuberculosis co-infections suggests that death from tuberculosis in leprosy patients was also a factor.</p>
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  year = {2015},
  journal = {Infection, Genetics and Evolution},
  issn = {15671348},
  doi = {10.1016/j.meegid.2015.02.001},
  language = {eng},
}