Department of Virology, University of Helsinki, Finland.
Department of Virology, University of Helsinki, Finland; Department of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics, University of Aveiro, Portugal; Institute of Electronics and Informatics Engineering of Aveiro, University of Aveiro, Portugal.
Forensic Sci Int Genet. 2020 Sep;48:102353. doi: 10.1016/j.fsigen.2020.102353. Epub 2020 Jul 8.
The imprints left by persistent DNA viruses in the tissues can testify to the changes driving virus evolution as well as provide clues on the provenance of modern and ancient humans. However, the history hidden in skeletal remains is practically unknown, as only parvovirus B19 and hepatitis B virus DNA have been detected in hard tissues so far. Here, we investigated the DNA prevalences of 38 viruses in femoral bone of recently deceased individuals. To this end, we used quantitative PCRs and a custom viral targeted enrichment followed by next-generation sequencing. The data was analyzed with a tailor-made bioinformatics pipeline. Our findings revealed bone to be a much richer source of persistent DNA viruses than earlier perceived, discovering ten additional ones, including several members of the herpes- and polyomavirus families, as well as human papillomavirus 31 and torque teno virus. Remarkably, many of the viruses found have oncogenic potential and/or may reactivate in the elderly and immunosuppressed individuals. Thus, their persistence warrants careful evaluation of their clinical significance and impact on bone biology. Our findings open new frontiers for the study of virus evolution from ancient relics as well as provide new tools for the investigation of human skeletal remains in forensic and archaeological contexts.
持续存在的 DNA 病毒在组织中留下的痕迹可以证明驱动病毒进化的变化，并为现代和古代人类的起源提供线索。然而，骨骼中隐藏的历史实际上是未知的，因为迄今为止仅在硬组织中检测到细小病毒 B19 和乙型肝炎病毒 DNA。在这里，我们研究了最近去世的个体股骨中 38 种病毒的 DNA 流行率。为此，我们使用了定量 PCR 和定制的病毒靶向富集，然后进行了下一代测序。使用定制的生物信息学管道对数据进行了分析。我们的研究结果表明，骨骼是比以前认为的更为丰富的持续性 DNA 病毒来源，发现了另外 10 种病毒，包括疱疹病毒和多瘤病毒家族的几个成员，以及人乳头瘤病毒 31 和扭转型肠病毒。值得注意的是，许多发现的病毒具有致癌潜力，并且/或者可能在老年人和免疫抑制个体中重新激活。因此，它们的持续存在需要仔细评估它们的临床意义及其对骨骼生物学的影响。我们的研究结果为从古代文物研究病毒进化开辟了新的领域，并为法医和考古背景下人类骨骼遗骸的研究提供了新的工具。
