The oldest human viruses, including herpes, have been discovered in 50,000-year-old Neanderthal bones and experts will soon be able to recreate them.
Researchers at the Federal University of São Paulo in Brazil identified traces of herpesviruses, which cause cold sores, sexually transmitted papillomavirus and adenovirus, also known as the common cold, in the DNA of two Neanderthal men found in a cave Russian.
Previous theories suggested that Neanderthals could have become extinct due to viruses and the latest study may be the first to provide evidence for this idea.
Now, the team hopes to synthesize the viruses and infect human cells in a laboratory to compare them with their modern counterparts.
Researchers identified traces of herpesviruses, papillomaviruses and adenoviruses in the DNA of Neanderthals who lived 50,000 years ago, making it the oldest human virus found.
“These Jurassic Park-like viruses could be studied for their reproductive and pathogenic characteristics and compared with their modern counterparts,” said Marcelo Briones, lead author of the study. new scientist.
“I am skeptical that this can be achieved, given the lack of full understanding of how virus DNA is damaged and how to reconstruct the recovered pieces into a complete viral genome,” he added.
“In addition, you have to take into account the interaction between the virus and the host, especially in a completely different environment.”
Team found Neanderthal remains in Siberia’s Chagyrskaya Cave in the Altai Mountains, which they used to sequence genome data of ancient beings.
The results determined that the remains of the viruses were not contracted from potential predators that preyed on Neanderthals or from modern humans that might have manipulated the bones.
The adenovirus causes cold symptoms in modern humans and can cause infections in the tonsils, adenoids and other mucosal tissues, while they could develop genital warts and cancer from the sexually transmitted papillomavirus.
Researchers believe herpesviruses (pictured) “could have been an important cause of the extinction of Neanderthals” but need to conduct additional tests to confirm the findings.
The study reported that the researchers believe that “herpesviruses, in particular, could have been an important cause of the Neanderthal extinction,” but they need to conduct additional tests to confirm the findings.
“Taken together, our data indicate that these viruses could represent viruses that actually infected Neanderthals,” Briones said.
Briones said the findings were not surprising, considering that today humans are infected with about 10 diseases during their lifetime.
The Neanderthal remains were first discovered in 2022 among nine others who shared DNA, meaning they were related.
A daughter and her father were among the remains and he shared mitochondrial DNA with two men, revealing that they shared a female ancestor, possibly the same grandmother.
There were signs that the ages ranged from children and teenagers to adults and it is believed that they all died at the same time, but investigators did not know how they added that there were no signs of burial.
Researchers now hope that their new discovery of DNA from the three serious diseases can finally shed light on what led to the death of the Neanderthals and their extinction.