ArticleiScience2024
Sequential trypsin and ProAlanase digestions unearth immunological protein biomarkers shrouded by skeletal collagen.
Article in iScience, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assessing the Potential of Ancient Protein Sequences in the Study of Hominid Evolution.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Paleo-proteomic analysis of Iron Age dental calculus provides direct evidence of Scythian reliance on ruminant dairy.PloS one · 2026Article
- Identification and removal of contamination in palaeoproteomic analysis of dental enamel.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Clothomics: a practical guide to understand the opportunities and challenges of omics-based methods in archaeological cloth research.NPJ heritage science · 2025Review
- Article
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Authors and funding
17 authors at 8 institutions in 9 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This study investigates the efficacy of proteomic analysis of human remains to identify active infections in the past through the detection of pathogens and the host response to infection. We advance leprosy as a case study due to the sequestering of sufferers in leprosaria and the suggestive skeletal lesions that can result from the disease. Here we present a sequential enzyme extraction protocol, using trypsin followed by ProAlanase, to reduce the abundance of collagen peptides and in so doing increase the detection of non-collagenous proteins. Through our study of five individuals from an 11th to 18th century leprosarium, as well as four from a contemporaneous non-leprosy associated cemetery in Barcelona, we show that samples from 2 out of 5 leprosarium individuals extracted with the sequential digestion methodology contain numerous host immune proteins associated with modern leprosy. In contrast, individuals from the non-leprosy associated cemetery and all samples extracted with a trypsin-only protocol did not. Through this study, we advance a palaeoproteomic methodology to gain insights into the health of archaeological individuals and take a step toward a proteomics-based method to study immune responses in past populations.
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Registered trials
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