Two positive tuberculosis cases in the late Nigrovits family, 18th century, Vác, Hungary

Abstract

Mycobacterium tuberculosis V ac Hungary Mummies Paleopathology Paleomicrobiology s u m m a r y Two mummies of the Hungarian mummy collection from V ac were the subjects of anthropological, paleopathological, radiological, paleomicrobiological, paleohistological and paleoproteomic studies. Both individuals belonged to the same family. The father, J ozsef Nigrovits (No 29), died at the age of 55 on the 11th of November 1793; his son, Antal Nigrovits (No 54), died on the 16th of July 1803, at the age of 22. They lived in the 18th century in V ac, a small town in northern Hungary.The macroscopic examination of the son showed a severely deformed neck and back region; the father has no visible mark of any illnesses. As earlier researches showed that tuberculosis was widespread in the community, the etiology of these deformities was examined. The paleomicrobiological results found that both individuals were infected with tuberculosis. Although they suffered from TB, the CT scan data of the bodies and their 3D reconstructions showed no skeletal evidence of tuberculosis. The deformity of the son turned to be a developmental abnormality of unknown origin, but no Pott's gibbus was present.

The Evolution of Diagnostic Techniques in the Paleopathology of Tuberculosis: A Scoping Review

“…Molecular studies confirmed TB in ancient human remains from necropoles in Ancient Egypt [78], Asia [79,80], America [81][82][83][84], and Europe [77,[85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99][100]. These authors reported aDNA extracted and analyzed and positively tested for MBTC, both from vertebral lesions and highly associated lesions.…”

Lipid biomarker-based verification of TB infection in mother’s and daughter’s mummified human remains (Vác Mummy Collection, 18th century, CE, Hungary)

“…The combined application of morphology, aDNA and lipid biomarker analysis is important to gain a clearer picture in paleopathological practice as the results can support each other, and help to reveal positive cases, which would possibly remain hidden if only one method was applied (Hershkovitz et al 2008;Lee et al 2012;Baker et al 2015;Masson et al 2015;Molnár et al 2015;Donoghue et al 2017;Luna et al 2020). The examination of mummified human remains with a variety of different approaches is especially useful and provides a unique insight to TB research (Salo et al 1994;Zink et al 2003;Donoghue et al 2004;Donoghue et al 2009;Minnikin et al 2011;Chan et al 2013;Lalremruata et al 2013;Kay et al 2015;Piombino-Mascali et al 2015;Szikossy et al 2015). Verification of TB infection in mummified human remains…”

“…Most of these individuals lived in the 18th century CE, which is from the pre-antibiotic era; therefore, they represent a well-characterised link between recent and archaeological samples. Besides the broad pathological investigations, demographical analysis and exploration of family connections were carried out, as well as attempts to reconstruct individual life stories (Kustár et al 2011a(Kustár et al , 2011bSzikossy et al 2015;Szikossy 2020).…”

Diagnostic dry bone histology in human paleopathology

“…In our opinion, dry bone histology is best used to corroborate the diagnosis of infection, and to determine its location, extent and developmental phase [also see De Boer et al (2013b)]. For the identification of specific pathogens, the recent advances in the application of molecular techniques are promising (Donoghue et al, 1998;Kolman et al, 1999;Donoghue et al, 2004;Zink et al, 2005a;Hershkovitz et al, 2008;Redman et al, 2009;Keller et al, 2012;Szikossy et al, 2015;Fournier et al, 2015;Maixner et al, 2016).…”