Host immunological characteristics and disease experience in past human populations

生物人类学家依靠骨骼数据来了解生物和文化是如何在过去的人类群体中相互作用的，特别是在历史记录有偏见、有限或完全没有的情况下。在这个项目中，研究人员将研究慢性压力、年龄、健康状况和免疫状态如何与梅毒的轨迹和严重程度有关，在一些有记录的骨骼样本中。该项目将促进对过去影响疾病易感性的因素的了解，以及健康和疾病在塑造人类体验中的作用。研究结果还可能为现代梅毒病例的筛查和诊断提供临床指南，以更准确地识别可能与持续感染相关的宿主特征。结合该项目，研究小组将在肯塔基州、南卡罗来纳州和密西西比州开展K-12和公共科学推广和教育活动。该项目还将通过在密西西比州立大学科布考古研究所的公共考古博物馆制作两件永久展品，加强公共和K-12科学教育基础设施。由于博物馆每年有数千名公众和K-12参观者，展品将支持扩大进入和参与STEM领域的努力。这个项目是由生物人类学和激励竞争研究计划(EPSCoR)共同资助的。在这个项目中，研究团队将调查与梅毒早期(初级、二级)感染的解决相关的人类宿主特征，以及与持续到晚期(第三级)感染相关的宿主特征，这种感染会导致破坏性和衰弱的症状，有时甚至是致命的。研究人员将结合美国博物馆收藏品中300多具骨骼的数据，这些骨骼代表在死亡前被诊断为梅毒的个人：1)确定慢性压力、营养状况、年龄和并存疾病状况是否与持续梅毒有关；2)检查对其他致病因素的过度炎症(超炎症反应/表型(HIP))是否与晚期梅毒有关；以及3)开发梅毒生物考古研究的多阶段解释模型，该模型将能够重建人类宿主在感染早期的免疫状态以及在感染后期的炎症反应。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Biological anthropologists rely on skeletal data to understand how biology and culture have interacted in past human populations, especially when historical records are biased, limited, or entirely absent. In this project, the investigators will examine how chronic stress, age, health conditions, and immune status relate to the trajectory and severity of syphilis in a number of documented skeletal samples. The project will advance knowledge about factors that influence vulnerability to disease in the past, as well as the role of health and disease in shaping the human experience. The research findings may also inform clinical guidelines for the screening and diagnosis of modern cases of syphilis to more accurately identify host characteristics that are likely associated with persistent infection. In conjunction with the project, K-12 and public science outreach and education activities will be conducted by the research team in Kentucky, South Carolina, and Mississippi. The project will also enhance public and K-12 science education infrastructure through the creation of two permanent exhibits in the public Archaeology Museum of the Cobb Institute of Archaeology, Mississippi State University. As the museum has thousands of public and K-12 visitors each year, the exhibits will support efforts to broaden access to and participation in STEM fields. This project is jointly funded by the Biological Anthropology and Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) programs.In this project, the research team will investigate human host characteristics that are associated with the resolution of syphilis infection after the early stage of the disease (primary, secondary) and those that are associated with persistence into late stage (tertiary) infection, which causes destructive and debilitating symptoms and is sometimes fatal. The investigators will combine data for over 300 skeletons in U.S. museum collections representing individuals who were diagnosed with syphilis prior to their deaths to: 1) determine whether chronic stress, nutritional status, age, and co-morbid disease conditions are associated with persistent syphilis; 2) examine whether excessive inflammation (hyper-inflammatory response/phenotype (HIP)) against other disease causing agents, specifically those which cause periodontal disease, is associated with late stage syphilis; and 3) develop a multi-stage interpretive model for bioarchaeological studies of syphilis that would enable the reconstruction of a human host’s immune status during early-stage infection, as well as their inflammatory response during late-stage infection.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.