Ötzi, the Iceman who, at 5300 years old, is the oldest mummy in Europe
Obviously, cancer cannot be transmitted. But a new study has revealed that two famous mummies carried a high-risk strain of HPV – which has been linked to several cancers.
A mummy Ötzithe Iceman, 5,300 years old, and a prehistoric man who lived in Siberia 45,000 years ago (the man from Ust’-Ishim) both carried a carcinogenic strain of human papillomavirus (HPV).
The revelation was made in a study recently in bioRxiv.
In the new study, scientists analyzed previously collected ancient genetic data from these individuals and found that both were likely infected with HPV16.
As mentioned by , in the study, the authors present what they say is the “oldest molecular evidence” of HPV16 in modern humans.
This extremely early evidence of HPV16 in modern humans calls into question the idea that Neanderthals were responsible for transmitting the virus to modern humans.
“Cancer-transmitting” HPV
HPV encompasses a diverse family of viruses that are primarily transmitted through direct skin-to-skin contact or sexual contactand are now commonly found in humans.
Most infections are asymptomatic, but in a small fraction of cases, HPV16 and other high-risk types (known as “oncogenic” papillomaviruses) may promote the development of some cancers.
Although the clinical importance of papillomaviruses is well understood, little is known about their occurrence among prehistoric human populations.
In the study, the authors explored a long-standing question about the extent to which cancer-associated papillomaviruses — particularly HPV16 — circulated among modern humans in the past.
“The results of the new study indicate that HPV16 has been associated with anatomically modern humans for a long time, probably long before the major population separations outside of Africa, or before 50,000 to 60,000 years ago,” the study’s author told Live Science, Marcelo Brionesprofessor at the Center for Medical Bioinformatics at the Faculty of Medicine of the Federal University of São Paulo, in Brazil.
“This supports the idea that oncogenic human papillomaviruses are not recent pathogens, but long-lived companions of their hosts, evolving alongside primates and humans over extensive evolutionary timescales,” he added.
As Live Science details, the team searched genetic datasets for DNA fragments corresponding to known HPV genomes. They found multiple DNA fragments corresponding to the HPV16 in both individuals, suggesting that the virus was present in them.
Although the pre-publication article does not address the ultimate origins of HPVs as a group, it does show that at least one high-risk type was present in modern humans at least 45,000 years ago.
Given this early date, the new findings challenge a previously proposed hypothesis that Neanderthals transmitted HPV16A to prehistoric Homo sapiens populations through crossbreeding.
