Ancient skeletons provide clues to modern medical mysteries
DNA fragments dating back thousands of years provide insight into multiple sclerosis, diabetes, schizophrenia and other diseases. /p>
Multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that affects 2.9 million people, presents a biological puzzle.
Many researchers suspect the disease is triggered by a virus, known as Epstein-Barr, which causes the immune system to attack nerves and can prevent patients from walking or talking. But the virus cannot explain everything, since almost everyone is infected with it at some point in their life.
A new study has found a possible solution to this paradox in the skeletal remains of a lost tribe of nomads who roamed cattle across the steppes of western Asia 5,000 years ago. It turns out that the nomads carried genetic mutations that most likely protected them from pathogens carried by their animals, but also made their immune systems more susceptible. These genes, the study suggests, made the nomads' descendants prone to an uncontrollable immune response.
This discovery is part of a larger, unprecedented effort aimed at to understand how the evolutionary past has shaped the health of living people. Researchers are analyzing thousands of genomes from people who lived between Portugal and Siberia and between Norway and Iran around 3,000 to 11,000 years ago. They hope to trace the genetic roots of not only multiple sclerosis, but also diabetes, schizophrenia and many other modern diseases.
“We're taking human genomics ancient to a whole new dimension. level," said Eske Willerslev, a geneticist at the University of Copenhagen who led the effort.
The researchers published the multiple sclerosis study as well as three more articles on genetics and the health of ancient people Wednesday in the journal Nature.
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DNA fragments dating back thousands of years provide insight into multiple sclerosis, diabetes, schizophrenia and other diseases. /p>
Multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that affects 2.9 million people, presents a biological puzzle.
Many researchers suspect the disease is triggered by a virus, known as Epstein-Barr, which causes the immune system to attack nerves and can prevent patients from walking or talking. But the virus cannot explain everything, since almost everyone is infected with it at some point in their life.
A new study has found a possible solution to this paradox in the skeletal remains of a lost tribe of nomads who roamed cattle across the steppes of western Asia 5,000 years ago. It turns out that the nomads carried genetic mutations that most likely protected them from pathogens carried by their animals, but also made their immune systems more susceptible. These genes, the study suggests, made the nomads' descendants prone to an uncontrollable immune response.
This discovery is part of a larger, unprecedented effort aimed at to understand how the evolutionary past has shaped the health of living people. Researchers are analyzing thousands of genomes from people who lived between Portugal and Siberia and between Norway and Iran around 3,000 to 11,000 years ago. They hope to trace the genetic roots of not only multiple sclerosis, but also diabetes, schizophrenia and many other modern diseases.
“We're taking human genomics ancient to a whole new dimension. level," said Eske Willerslev, a geneticist at the University of Copenhagen who led the effort.
The researchers published the multiple sclerosis study as well as three more articles on genetics and the health of ancient people Wednesday in the journal Nature.
We are having difficulty retrieving the content of the article.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode , please exit and log in to your Times account, or subscribe to the entire Times.
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