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The elusive parasite: comparing macroscopic, immunological, and genomic approaches to identifying malaria in human skeletal remains from Sayala, Egypt (third to sixth centuries AD)
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences ( IF 2.2 ) Pub Date : 2021-06-14 , DOI: 10.1007/s12520-021-01350-z
Alvie Loufouma Mbouaka 1 , Michelle Gamble 2, 3 , Christina Wurst 4 , Heidi Yoko Jäger 4 , Frank Maixner 4 , Albert Zink 4 , Harald Noedl 1, 5 , Michaela Binder 2, 6
Affiliation  

Although malaria is one of the oldest and most widely distributed diseases affecting humans, identifying and characterizing its presence in ancient human remains continue to challenge researchers. We attempted to establish a reliable approach to detecting malaria in human skeletons using multiple avenues of analysis: macroscopic observations, rapid diagnostic tests, and shotgun-capture sequencing techniques, to identify pathological changes, Plasmodium antigens, and Plasmodium DNA, respectively. Bone and tooth samples from ten individuals who displayed skeletal lesions associated with anaemia, from a site in southern Egypt (third to sixth centuries AD), were selected. Plasmodium antigens were detected in five of the ten bone samples, and traces of Plasmodium aDNA were detected in six of the twenty bone and tooth samples. There was relatively good synchronicity between the biomolecular findings, despite not being able to authenticate the results. This study highlights the complexity and limitations in the conclusive identification of the Plasmodium parasite in ancient human skeletons. Limitations regarding antigen and aDNA preservation and the importance of sample selection are at the forefront of the search for malaria in the past. We confirm that, currently, palaeopathological changes such as cribra orbitalia are not enough to be certain of the presence of malaria. While biomolecular methods are likely the best chance for conclusive identification, we were unable to obtain results which correspond to the current authentication criteria of biomolecules. This study represents an important contribution in the refinement of biomolecular techniques used; also, it raises new insight regarding the consistency of combining several approaches in the identification of malaria in past populations.



中文翻译:

难以捉摸的寄生虫:比较宏观、免疫学和基因组方法来识别埃及萨亚拉人类骨骼残骸中的疟疾(公元 3 至 6 世纪)

尽管疟疾是影响人类的最古老和分布最广的疾病之一,但识别和表征其在古代人类遗骸中的存在继续挑战研究人员。我们试图建立一种可靠的方法来使用多种分析途径检测人体骨骼中的疟疾:宏观观察、快速诊断测试和鸟枪捕获测序技术,以分别识别病理变化、疟原虫抗原和疟原虫DNA。选择了来自埃及南部(公元 3 至 6 世纪)一个地点的 10 名表现出与贫血相关的骨骼病变的个体的骨骼和牙齿样本。在 10 个骨骼样本中的 5 个中检测到了疟原虫抗原,并且微量的在 20 个骨骼和牙齿样本中的 6 个中检测到疟原虫aDNA。尽管无法验证结果,但生物分子发现之间的同步性相对较好。这项研究强调了在古人类骨骼中最终鉴定疟原虫寄生虫的复杂性和局限性。关于抗原和 aDNA 保存的限制以及样本选择的重要性是过去寻找疟疾的最前沿。我们确认,目前,古病理学变化,如 cribra orbitalia不足以确定疟疾的存在。虽然生物分子方法可能是最终鉴定的最佳机会,但我们无法获得符合当前生物分子鉴定标准的结果。这项研究对改进所使用的生物分子技术做出了重要贡献;此外,它提出了关于在过去人群中识别疟疾的几种方法的一致性方面的新见解。

更新日期:2021-06-14
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