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Ancient human dental plaque may shed light on infectious diseases

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Researchers at Mississippi State University are using dental calculus found in human skeletal remains to identify and diagnose infectious diseases in past populations, according to a press release.

“I want to know how the diseases that impact entire human populations shift over time and how that can cause a shift in rates of death and sickness,” Molly Zuckerman, PhD, associate professor in the department of anthropology and Middle Eastern cultures at Mississippi State University, said in the release. “[Skeletons] can generate lasting lessons about wealth, social inequality, poverty and stigma and how these can shape health. These lessons are directly applicable to future populations and present populations.”

Zuckerman and two other investigators received more than $64,000 from the National Science Foundation to study dental calculus from human remains exhumed from archaeological sites to understand when certain diseases like syphilis, tuberculosis and pneumonia appeared and spread in different populations. According to the release, this form of hardened dental plaque can be used to identify infectious diseases with greater certainty compared with the use of other skeletal remains.

Molly K. Zuckerman, PhD, associate professor of anthropology at Mississippi State University, is studying skeletal remains to provide insight into the spread of infectious diseases today.

Source: Megan Bean

The researchers will examine how disease affected past populations with the hope that by analyzing ancient disease transmission, they can better comprehend the spread of modern infectious diseases. For diseases like syphilis, this method has the potential to uncover information that could not be found using other approaches.

“Syphilis is one of the diseases returning with great force and intensity,” Zuckerman said. “It’s increasing in incidence throughout both developed and developing nations. You can’t culture syphilis, so it’s almost impossible to work on it in a lab setting. Studying people who lived in the past is one of the only ways to understand more about the disease.”

Disclosure: Infectious Disease News was unable to confirm relevant financial disclosures at the time of publication.