Tuberculosis (TB) is a potentially serious infectious disease that spreads from one person to another through tiny droplets released into the air via coughs and sneezes. While there are vaccines and medicines available for its cure, studies are still on for another, better medicine. As per a study published in Nature Communications, a group of researchers are studying the tuberculosis DNA they have recovered from a 200 year-old Hungarian mummy find a new cure.
The research team included collaborators from the Universities of Warwick and Birmingham, University College London, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest.
Using a technique known as metagenomics, these scientists have recovered tuberculosis (TB) genomes from the lung tissue of a mummified Hungarian woman called Terezia Hausmann, who died aged 28 in December 1797. According to them, the strain of TB found in the mummy offered them a rare chance to study the pathogens from a time before antibiotics and the spread of the disease during the industrial revolution in Europe.
The metagenomics technique uses cutting-edge genome sequencing approaches and avoids the complicated and unreliable process of using bacteria or amplification of DNA. The researchers found that the mummified woman was infected with two different trains of TB bacterium.
Study lead author Mark Pallen, professor of Microbial Genomics at Warwick Medical School, said: "Most other attempts to recover DNA sequences from historical or ancient samples have suffered from the risk of contamination, because they rely on amplification of DNA in the laboratory. The beauty of metagenomics is that it provides a simple but highly informative, assumption-free, one-size-fits-all approach that works in a wide variety of contexts."
Pallen concluded by saying that the discovery was significant for current and future infection control and diagnosis. (Image: Andras Tumbasz, Hungarian Natural History Museum)
The research team included collaborators from the Universities of Warwick and Birmingham, University College London, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest.
Using a technique known as metagenomics, these scientists have recovered tuberculosis (TB) genomes from the lung tissue of a mummified Hungarian woman called Terezia Hausmann, who died aged 28 in December 1797. According to them, the strain of TB found in the mummy offered them a rare chance to study the pathogens from a time before antibiotics and the spread of the disease during the industrial revolution in Europe.
The metagenomics technique uses cutting-edge genome sequencing approaches and avoids the complicated and unreliable process of using bacteria or amplification of DNA. The researchers found that the mummified woman was infected with two different trains of TB bacterium.
Study lead author Mark Pallen, professor of Microbial Genomics at Warwick Medical School, said: "Most other attempts to recover DNA sequences from historical or ancient samples have suffered from the risk of contamination, because they rely on amplification of DNA in the laboratory. The beauty of metagenomics is that it provides a simple but highly informative, assumption-free, one-size-fits-all approach that works in a wide variety of contexts."
Pallen concluded by saying that the discovery was significant for current and future infection control and diagnosis. (Image: Andras Tumbasz, Hungarian Natural History Museum)
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