Humans have evolved alongside infectious diseases for millennia. Despite the efforts to reduce their incidence, infectious diseases still pose a tremendous threat to the world population. Fast development of molecular techniques and increasing risk of new epidemics have resulted in several studies that look to the past in order to investigate the origin and evolution of infectious diseases. Tuberculosis and leprosy have become frequent targets of such studies, owing to the persistence of their molecular biomarkers in ancient material and the characteristic skeletal lesions each disease may cause. This review examines the molecular methods used to screen for the presence of M. tuberculosis and M. leprae ancient DNA (aDNA) and their differentiation in ancient human remains. Examples of recent studies, mainly from Europe, that employ the newest techniques of molecular analysis are also described. Moreover, we present a specific approach based on assessing the likely immunological profile of historic populations, in order to further elucidate the influence of M. tuberculosis and M. leprae on historical human populations.
BT - European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology C1 -http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26210385?dopt=Abstract
DO - 10.1007/s10096-015-2427-5 IS - 9 J2 - Eur. J. Clin. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. LA - eng N2 -Humans have evolved alongside infectious diseases for millennia. Despite the efforts to reduce their incidence, infectious diseases still pose a tremendous threat to the world population. Fast development of molecular techniques and increasing risk of new epidemics have resulted in several studies that look to the past in order to investigate the origin and evolution of infectious diseases. Tuberculosis and leprosy have become frequent targets of such studies, owing to the persistence of their molecular biomarkers in ancient material and the characteristic skeletal lesions each disease may cause. This review examines the molecular methods used to screen for the presence of M. tuberculosis and M. leprae ancient DNA (aDNA) and their differentiation in ancient human remains. Examples of recent studies, mainly from Europe, that employ the newest techniques of molecular analysis are also described. Moreover, we present a specific approach based on assessing the likely immunological profile of historic populations, in order to further elucidate the influence of M. tuberculosis and M. leprae on historical human populations.
PY - 2015 SP - 1733 EP - 49 T2 - European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology TI - Molecular studies on ancient M. tuberculosis and M. leprae: methods of pathogen and host DNA analysis. UR - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4545183/pdf/10096_2015_Article_2427.pdf VL - 34 SN - 1435-4373 ER -