Ancient DNA study provides clues to leprosy susceptibility in medieval Europe
Sarah A. Inskip, Gökhan Mustafa Yazıcı, Ruoyun Hui et al.
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Abstract
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Leprosy was one of the most feared diseases in medieval Europe, yet the reasons for its subsequent decline remain unclear. Here we present an ancient DNA study of 92 individuals from five medieval leprosy hospitals (leprosaria) across England and Denmark (ca. 1200-1400 CE) and 273 contemporaneous non-leprosy controls. We recovered 25 ancient Mycobacterium leprae genomes and identified a new ancient lineage. Comparison with modern M. leprae diversity suggests that medieval European strains contributed to the modern global distribution. We also generated human genomic data and identified five loci significantly associated with leprosy susceptibility, including novel associations at LACC1 and IRF8. These variants show strong geographic structure, with four protective variants significantly more common in Northern Europeans. Combined with bioarchaeological evidence, our results suggest that selective pressure from M. leprae may have contributed to regional differences in immune gene frequencies, potentially explaining the disease's decline in Europe.
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