New perspectives in biomolecular paleopathology of ancient tuberculosis: a proteomic approach

We report here ancient mycobacterial protein analysis of paleoanthropological findings, from Hungarian archaeological sites. These proteomic results, the oldest reported pathological protein sequences which were extracted and analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization tandem time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI TOF/TOF MS). Through a combination of direct sequencing and peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF) several mycobacterial protein (adenylate kinase, catalase-peroxidase-peroxinitritase-T katG, dehydrogenase/reductase, fumarate reductase flavoprotein subunit, glycosyl transferase, LysR family transcriptional regulator protein, oxidoreductase, putative helicase, translation initiation factor IF-2 protein, peptide sythetase nrp) have been identified. The ancient mycobacterial proteins and their sequences have the potential to expand our understanding of the prehistoric epidemiology and evolution of these pathogens.