Nerlich Andreas G, Lösch Sandra
Division of Paleopathology, Institute of Pathology, Academic Hospital Munich-Bogenhausen, Englschalkinger Str. 77, 81925 Munich, Germany.
Interdiscip Perspect Infect Dis. 2009;2009:437187. doi: 10.1155/2009/437187. Epub 2009 Apr 5.
Both origin and evolution of tuberculosis and its pathogens (Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex) are not fully understood. The paleopathological investigation of human remains offers a unique insight into the molecular evolution and spread including correlative data of the environment. The molecular analysis of material from Egypt (3000-500 BC), Sudan (200-600 AD), Hungary (600-1700 AD), Latvia (1200-1600 AD), and South Germany (1400-1800 AD) urprisingly revealed constantly high frequencies of tuberculosis in all different time periods excluding significant environmental influence on tuberculosis spread. The typing of various mycobacteria strains provides evidence for ancestral M. tuberculosis strains in Pre- to early Egyptian dynastic material (3500-2650 BC), while typical M. africanum signatures were detected in a Middle Kingdom tomb (2050-1650 BC). Samples from the New Kingdom to Late Period (1500-500 BC) indicated modern M. tuberculosis strains. No evidence was seen for M. bovis in Egyptian material while M. bovis signatures were first identified in Siberian biomaterial dating 2000 years before present. These results contraindicates the theory that M. tuberculosis evolved from M. bovis during early domestication in the region of the "Fertile Crescent," but supports the scenario that M. tuberculosis probably derived from an ancestral progenitor strain. The environmental influence of this evolutionary scenario deserves continuing intense evaluation.
结核病及其病原体（结核分枝杆菌复合群）的起源和进化尚未完全明了。对人类遗骸的古病理学研究为分子进化和传播，包括环境相关数据，提供了独特的见解。对来自埃及（公元前3000年至公元前500年）、苏丹（公元200年至公元600年）、匈牙利（公元600年至公元1700年）、拉脱维亚（公元1200年至公元1600年）和德国南部（公元1400年至公元1800年）材料的分子分析令人惊讶地发现，在所有不同时期，结核病的发病率一直居高不下，排除了环境对结核病传播的重大影响。对各种分枝杆菌菌株的分型为埃及前王朝至早期王朝时期（公元前3500年至公元前2650年）的祖先结核分枝杆菌菌株提供了证据，而在中王国时期的一座墓葬（公元前2050年至公元前1650年）中检测到了典型的非洲分枝杆菌特征。从新王国到晚期（公元前1500年至公元前500年）的样本表明存在现代结核分枝杆菌菌株。在埃及材料中未发现牛分枝杆菌的证据，而牛分枝杆菌特征最早在距今2000年前的西伯利亚生物材料中被鉴定出来。这些结果与结核病在“新月沃地”地区早期驯化过程中从牛分枝杆菌进化而来的理论相悖，但支持了结核分枝杆菌可能源自祖先菌株的设想。这种进化设想的环境影响值得持续深入评估。
