Metagenomic research of infectious diseases in archaeological contexts: evidence from the Hospital Real de Todos-os-Santos (Portugal)

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dc.contributor.authorAlves-Cardoso, Francisca
dc.contributor.authorPalomo-Díez, Sara
dc.contributor.authorAlonso Conde, Alejandro
dc.contributor.authorGomes, Cláudia
dc.contributor.authorCasimiro, Silvia
dc.contributor.authorBanha da Silva, Rodrigo
dc.contributor.authorArroyo-Pardo, Eduardo
dc.date.accessioned2022-06-28T07:48:26Z
dc.date.available2022-06-28T07:48:26Z
dc.date.issued2022-06-15
dc.description.abstractSyphilis is one of the most exciting diseases explored in paleopathology and, therefore, tracing back its origin and development has provided a prolific debate. The combination of paleopathological data with historical sources, iconography, and archaeological contexts were the primary sources used to reconstruct its historical path. However, there are some limitations to paleopathological diagnosis due to the nature of bone reaction to stimuli. In addition, historical sources are subjected to a bias of social and cultural nature and the knowledge of those who wrote them. Hence, ancient DNA analysis offers the possibility of acquiring proof of cause by identifying pathogens in an organism. We undertook a metagenomic study of a skeleton exhumed from the Royal Hospital of All Saints (Portugal), renowned for treating syphilis from the 16th century onwards. The skeleton had previously been diagnosed with syphilis according to paleopathological analysis. However, the metagenomics analysis showed no presence of the pathogen associated with syphilis (i.e., Treponema pallidum) but revealed pathogenic microorganisms related to respiratory diseases (pneumonia), nonspecific bone infections (osteomyelitis), and oral bacterial pathologies as well as Hansen’s disease (also known as leprosy). The results are exciting and demand a reappraisal of the observed bone changes, recontextualizing their characterization as syphilis related. They prove that past reconstruction of health and disease diagnoses based on assessing human osteological remains of known context (such as a syphilitic hospital) may bias interpretations and, therefore, caution is recommended, not forgetting that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence (in this case of syphilis) in life.en_UK
dc.description.sponsorshipThis research was funded by the research projects: Bone Matters/Matérias Ósseas (reference: IF/00127/2014/CP1233/CT0003/) and Life After Death: Rethinking Human Remains and Human Osteological Collections as Cultural Heritage and Biobanks (reference: 2020.01014.CEECIND)— both projects are funded both by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portugal) and Coordinated by Francisca Alves Cardoso. F.A.-C.’s research was also funded by Universidade NOVA FCSH 6ª Edição do Financiamento Exploratório para Projetos. This research was within the scope of CRIA— Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia (reference UIDB/04038/2020) Strategic Plan and development of CRIA’s laboratory profile via its Laboratory of Biological Anthropology and Human Osteology—LABOH, funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portugal).en_UK
dc.identifier.citationAlves-Cardoso F, Palomo-Díez S, Alonso Conde A, et al., (2022) Metagenomic research of infectious diseases in archaeological contexts: evidence from the Hospital Real de Todos-os-Santos (Portugal), Applied Sciences, Volume 12, Issue 12, June 2022, Article number 6096en_UK
dc.identifier.issn2076-3417
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.3390/app12126096
dc.identifier.urihttps://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/18094
dc.language.isoenen_UK
dc.publisherMDPIen_UK
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 International*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/*
dc.subjectancient DNAen_UK
dc.subject16S metagenomicsen_UK
dc.subjectmicrobiomeen_UK
dc.subjectpaleopathologyen_UK
dc.subjectleprosyen_UK
dc.subjectsyphilisen_UK
dc.subjectbonesen_UK
dc.subjecthuman remainsen_UK
dc.titleMetagenomic research of infectious diseases in archaeological contexts: evidence from the Hospital Real de Todos-os-Santos (Portugal)en_UK
dc.typeArticleen_UK

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