Author Correction: Molecular signatures written in bone proteins of 79 AD victims from Herculaneum and Pompeii.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Ntasi G
PROVIDER: S-EPMC9279501 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Author Correction: Molecular signatures written in bone proteins of 79 AD victims from Herculaneum and Pompeii.
Ntasi Georgia G Palomo Ismael Rodriguez IR Marino Gennaro G Piaz Fabrizio Dal FD Cappellini Enrico E Birolo Leila L Petrone Pierpaolo P
Scientific reports 20220713 1
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Project description:An extensive proteomic analysis was performed on a set of 12 bones of human victims of the eruption that in AD 79 rapidly buried Pompeii and Herculaneum, allowing the detection of molecular signatures imprinted in the surviving protein components. Bone collagen survived the heat of the eruption, bearing a piece of individual biological history encoded in chemical modifications. Here we show that the human bone proteomes from Pompeii are more degraded than those from the inhabitants of Herculaneum, despite the latter were exposed to temperatures much higher than those experienced in Pompeii. The analysis of the specimens from Pompeii shows lower content of non-collagenous proteins, higher deamidation level and higher extent of collagen modification. In Pompeii, the slow decomposition of victims' soft tissues in the natural dry-wet hydrogeological soil cycles damaged their bone proteome more than what was experienced at Herculaneum by the rapid vanishing of body tissues from intense heat, under the environmental condition of a permanent waterlogged burial context. Results herein presented are the first proteomic analyses of bones exposed to eruptive conditions, but also delivered encouraging results for potential biomarkers that might also impact future development of forensic bone proteomics.
| S-EPMC9142588 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In search of markers for protein aging, we used an extraordinary test case of human bones from the excavations sites of Pompei and Herculaneum (79 AD), analyzed by a shotgun proteomic approach using LC-MS/MS. Human bones from Scalandrone Bay (II sec AD, another volcanic area, yet not related to Vesuvius eruption were also analysed for the comparison of the PTMs provoked from a volcanic ground to an almost coeval standard burial condition. In addition, already published archaeological bones, approximately 17 centuries younger than the test case, were used as control samples. Deamidation of asparagine and glutamine was examined as a now widely considered aging molecular marker. Deamidation profile was quite robust for samples with a similar age whereas the fewer proteins were detected, the more degraded the sample were found to be. Positional investigation of deamidation in the polypeptide sequence of collagen type I revealed that some zones are more susceptible to deamidation than others. Back bone cleavage analysis confirmed that some zones apart from deamidation are more susceptible to spontaneous hydrolysis too. Analysis of post-translational modifications showed higher advanced glycation products of lysine and arginines in the samples of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Furthermore, oxidative products of methionine, histidine and the conversion of ST to glycine were also detected. Interestingly, multiple oxidation products of proline and dehydration of hydroxyproline were detected for the first time, turning the scientific interest to this amino acid (P), which is usually ignored due to its natural conversion to hydroxyproline. As a matter of fact, we can observe that collagen degradation in bones from Pompeii and Herculaneum underwent different degradation processes.
2021-07-10 | PXD020462 | Pride
Project description:BackgroundThe study of ancient skeletal pathologies can be adopted as a key tool in assessing and tracing several diseases from past to present times. Skeletal fluorosis, a chronic metabolic bone and joint disease causing excessive ossification and joint ankylosis, has been only rarely considered in differential diagnoses of palaeopathological lesions. Even today its early stages are misdiagnosed in endemic areas.Methodology/principal findingsEndemic fluorosis induced by high concentrations of fluoride in water and soils is a major health problem in several countries, particularly in volcanic areas. Here we describe for the first time the features of endemic fluorosis in the Herculaneum victims of the 79 AD eruption, resulting from long-term exposure to high levels of environmental fluoride which still occur today.Conclusions/significanceOur observations on morphological, radiological, histological and chemical skeletal and dental features of this ancient population now suggest that in this area fluorosis was already endemic in Roman times. This evidence merged with currently available epidemiologic data reveal for the Vesuvius area population a permanent fluoride health hazard, whose public health and socio-economic impact is currently underestimated. The present guidelines for fluoridated tap water might be reconsidered accordingly, particularly around Mt Vesuvius and in other fluoride hazard areas with high natural fluoride levels.
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Project description:In AD 79 the town of Herculaneum was suddenly hit and overwhelmed by volcanic ash-avalanches that killed all its remaining residents, as also occurred in Pompeii and other settlements as far as 20 kilometers from Vesuvius. New investigations on the victims' skeletons unearthed from the ash deposit filling 12 waterfront chambers have now revealed widespread preservation of atypical red and black mineral residues encrusting the bones, which also impregnate the ash filling the intracranial cavity and the ash-bed encasing the skeletons. Here we show the unique detection of large amounts of iron and iron oxides from such residues, as revealed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and Raman microspectroscopy, thought to be the final products of heme iron upon thermal decomposition. The extraordinarily rare preservation of significant putative evidence of hemoprotein thermal degradation from the eruption victims strongly suggests the rapid vaporization of body fluids and soft tissues of people at death due to exposure to extreme heat.
| S-EPMC6157861 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Ancient DNA (aDNA) samples extracted from the bone remains of six equids buried by the Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD were investigated to test pre-amplification and enzymatic repair procedures designed to enhance the rescue of nuclear genes. The extracts, which proved all positive for Equidae mtDNA amplification, proved positive only four times out of 18 when tested for single-copy Equidae nuclear genes (epsilon globin, p53 and gamma interferon). Pre-amplification did not change the number of retrieved aDNA sequences but 10 times out of 14 enzymatic repair restored the amplifiability of the genes analysed, proving that repair increases the rate of successful rescue from 22 to alpha(lambda)mu(omicron)sigma(tau) 80%. These findings support the hypothesis that some of these cross-linked aDNA molecules, which are not completely separated when DNA is extracted under denaturing conditions, become homoduplex substrates for Pol I and/or T4 ligase action upon renaturation. aDNA authenticity is proved by the homology of the nucleotide sequences of loci tested to the corresponding modern Equidae sequences. Data also indicate that cross-linked homoduplex molecules selected by denaturation of the extract are repaired without any chimera formation. The general features of aDNA amplification with and without denaturation and enzymatic repair are discussed.
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| S-EPMC10205746 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Detecting the ultrastructure of brain tissue in human archaeological remains is a rare event that can offer unique insights into the structure of the ancient central nervous system (CNS). Yet ancient brains reported in the literature show only poor preservation of neuronal structures. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and advanced image processing tools, we describe the direct visualization of neuronal tissue in vitrified brain and spinal cord remains which we discovered in a male victim of the AD 79 eruption in Herculaneum. We show exceptionally well preserved ancient neurons from different regions of the human CNS at unprecedented resolution. This tissue typically consists of organic matter, as detected using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. By means of a self-developed neural image processing network, we also show specific details of the neuronal nanomorphology, like the typical myelin periodicity evidenced in the brain axons. The perfect state of preservation of these structures is due to the unique process of vitrification which occurred at Herculaneum. The discovery of proteins whose genes are expressed in the different region of the human adult brain further agree with the neuronal origin of the unusual archaeological find. The conversion of human tissue into glass is the result of sudden exposure to scorching volcanic ash and the concomitant rapid drop in temperature. The eruptive-induced process of natural vitrification, locking the cellular structure of the CNS, allowed us to study possibly the best known example in archaeology of extraordinarily well-preserved human neuronal tissue from the brain and spinal cord.
| S-EPMC7537897 | biostudies-literature