Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: The origins and dispersal of ancient leishmaniasis in the New World: A bioarchaeological and molecular approach

今天，利什曼病影响着全世界数百万人，导致毁容病变和致命并发症。世界卫生组织认为利什曼病是一种“被忽视的热带疾病”，是贫困国家的地方病，每年发病率上升近200万例，但缺乏有效的治疗或预防。利什曼病的全球地理分布及其对人类健康和福祉的影响使其成为最严重的被忽视疾病之一。然而，利什曼病并不仅仅是一种当代疾病。生物考古学、民族史和遗传学等领域提供的证据表明，利什曼病早在有记载的历史之前就已成为人类的负担。然而，寄生虫在全球范围内进化和扩散的起源和运动仍然知之甚少。本项目由亚利桑那州立大学的博士生凯利·哈金斯（Kelly Harkins）主持。Anne Stone和Jane Buikstra，将使用分子和生物考古学技术，从对当代利什曼原虫菌株知之甚少的样本和考古发现的人类遗骸中获取DNA。这些数据将用于检验有关利什曼原虫的进化历史和新世界人类利什曼病出现的假设，这两者都是目前争论的来源。具体而言，该项目建议对安第斯山脉已知最早的新世界利什曼病骨骼病例的菌株进行特征描述，探索这些早期菌株与当今全球发现的现代菌株之间的关系，并结合来自考古和民族历史背景的额外数据，以解决该疾病在史前南美人群中传播的性质。该项目将公开传播新的基因组序列数据，这对了解病原体生物学至关重要，也是那些致力于改善全球公共卫生的领域和研究人员的有力工具。

Leishmaniaisis affects millions of people worldwide today, resulting in disfiguring lesions and fatal complications. The World Health Organization regards leishmaniasis as a "Neglected Tropical Disease," endemic to poverty-stricken countries and rising in incidence by nearly two million cases annually, but lacking effective treatment or prevention. Its worldwide geographic distribution and its impact on human health and well-being make leishmaniasis one of the most significant of the neglected diseases. Leishmaniasis is not, however, solely a contemporary affliction. The fields of bioarchaeology, ethnohistory and genetics provide evidence to support that leishmaniasis has been a burden to humanity long before recorded history. Nevertheless, the origins and movement of the parasite as it evolved and dispersed throughout the globe remains poorly understood.This project by doctoral student Kelly Harkins (Arizona State University), under the supervision of Drs. Anne Stone and Jane Buikstra, will use molecular and bioarchaeological techniques to obtain DNA from a sample of poorly understood contemporary Leishmania strains and archaeologically recovered human remains. These data will be used to test hypotheses that address the evolutionary history of the parasite Leishmania and the emergence of human leishmaniasis in the New World, both of which are the source of ongoing debate. Specifically, this project proposes to characterize strains from the earliest known skeletal cases of New World leishmaniasis in the Andes, to explore the relationship of these early strains to modern strains found throughout the globe today, and with additional data from archaeological and ethnohistoric contexts, to address the nature of the disease's movement in prehistoric South American populations. This project will publicly disseminate new genomic sequence data, essential for understanding pathogen biology and also a powerful tool for those fields and researchers working to improve global public health.