Osteological, Biomolecular and Geochemical Examination of an Early Anglo-Saxon Case of Lepromatous Leprosy

PLoS One

Simon A. Mays¹  Sonia R. Zakrzewski²  Alistair W. G. Pike²  G. Michael Taylor³  Graham R. Stewart³  Gareth Llewellyn⁴  Christopher M. Williams⁴  Sarah A. Inskip⁵  Gurdyal S. Besra⁶  Houdini H. T. Wu⁶  Oona Y-C Lee⁶  David E. Minnikin⁶ 

[1] Ancient Monuments Laboratory, English Heritage Centre for Archaeology, Fort Cumberland, Fort Cumberland Road, Eastney, Portsmouth PO4 9LD, United Kingdom;Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, Avenue Campus, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BF, United Kingdom;Department of Microbial and Cellular Sciences, School of Biosciences and Medicine, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7TE, United Kingdom;EPSRC National Mass Spectrometry Facility, Institute of Mass Spectrometry, College of Medicine, Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, United Kingdom;Faculteit Archaeologie, Universiteit Leiden, 2311 BE, Leiden, The Netherlands;Institute of Microbiology and Infection, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, United Kingdom

关键词: Leprosy;    Mycobacterium leprae;    Osteology;    Reversed phase chromatography;    Radioactive carbon dating;    High performance liquid chromatography;    Fibula;    Polymerase chain reaction;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.pone.0124282

学科分类：医学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

We have examined a 5th to 6th century inhumation from Great Chesterford, Essex, UK. The incomplete remains are those of a young male, aged around 21–35 years at death. The remains show osteological evidence of lepromatous leprosy (LL) and this was confirmed by lipid biomarker analysis and ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis, which provided evidence for both multi-copy and single copy loci from the Mycobacterium leprae genome. Genotyping showed the strain belonged to the 3I lineage, but the Great Chesterford isolate appeared to be ancestral to 3I strains found in later medieval cases in southern Britain and also continental Europe. While a number of contemporaneous cases exist, at present, this case of leprosy is the earliest radiocarbon dated case in Britain confirmed by both aDNA and lipid biomarkers. Importantly, Strontium and Oxygen isotope analysis suggest that the individual is likely to have originated from outside Britain. This potentially sheds light on the origins of the strain in Britain and its subsequent spread to other parts of the world, including the Americas where the 3I lineage of M. leprae is still found in some southern states of America.

【 授权许可】

CC BY