Evaluating bacterial pathogen DNA preservation in museum osteological collections

Abstract

Reports of bacterial pathogen DNA sequences obtained from archaeological bone specimens raise the possibility of greatly improving our understanding of the history of infectious diseases. However, the survival of pathogen DNA over long time periods is poorly characterized, and scepticism remains about the reliability of these data.In order to explore the survival of bacterial pathogen DNA in bone specimens, we analysed samples from 59 eighteenth and twentieth century individuals known to have been infected with either Mycobacterium tuberculosis or Treponema pallidum. No reproducible evidence of surviving pathogen DNA was obtained, despite the use of extraction and PCR-amplification methods determined to be highly sensitive. These data suggest that previous studies need to be interpreted with caution, and we propose that a much greater emphasis is placed on understanding how pathogen DNA survives in archaeological material, and how its presence can be properly verified and used.

Higoumenakis’ sign in the diagnosis of congenital syphilis in anthropological specimens

“…The additional fact that dental stigmata of the disease, such as Hutchinson's incisors and mulberry molars, are only observed in about 30% of all patients [2,11,27], allow us to advocate evaluating the clavicle sign in osteoarcheological studies, especially when cranial data evaluation is missing or remains inconclusive. In fact, even within the clinical scenario, the disease is so diverse (la grande simulatrice) that no single criterion can be independently applied for a clinical diagnosis and the actual definite decision can only be provided via serological / molecular testing, which, however, is not available in archaeological / anthropological samples [6,7,10]. In addition, HS may also be significant for the definite establishment of the presence of congenital syphilis in the pre-Columbian ancient Greek world and the Old World in general, as well as for the differential diagnosis between syphilis and other variants of treponemal / spirochete infections [2,3,11,28].…”

“…The diagnosis of congenital syphilis on bones is based on osseous evidence, making osseous signs of congenital syphilis very important for the differential diagnosis of the disease [2,8,9], especially when ancient treponemal DNA is considered impossible to detect in archaeological specimens [10]. Dental stigmata, such as Hutchinson's incisor and mulberry molar, are very important for the diagnosis of congenital syphilis in archaeological populations but are not always sensitive / specific enough for a definite diagnosis [2,11].…”

Treponemal disease in the Old World? Integrated palaeopathological assessment of a 9th–11th century skeleton from north-central Spain

“…Burstain et al, 1991). However, further assays failed to detect treponemal DNA in bones otherwise suitable for ancient DNA analysis, even when using highly sensitive PCR protocols, suggesting that treponemal DNA is not well preserved in human bone and that ancient DNA analysis is not adequate, at present, to study ancient cases of putative acquired syphilis on a routine basis (Bouw- Barnes and Thomas, 2006). Treponemal bacteria (and, consequently, its DNA) likely disseminates to bone early during the first stages of infection but is not present in the same location at later stages of the disease, making ancient DNA techniques unreliable for studies on acquired syphilis in past human populations (von Hunnius et al, 2007).…”

Plague genome: The Black Death decoded

“…"There was a complete schism," says Ian Barnes, a palaeogeneticist at Royal Holloway University of London, who says he spent twoand-a-half years trying -unsuccessfully -to find DNA evidence of syphilis or tuberculosis in bones dating from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries 5 . "People largely ignored each other, " he says.…”