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Various hypotheses suggest that the Neanderthal extinction was linked to one or more pandemics. It was by testing these hypotheses that an international team of researchers made a remarkable discovery in the Chagyrskaya cave in Russia: traces of the oldest human viruses recorded to date on the remains of Neanderthals from before are 50,000 years old (the oldest known virus dates back to 31,600 years ago). Researchers from the Federal University of Sao Paulo (in Brazil) found in the DNA of these hominids the remains of herpesviruses (responsible, among other things, for herpes), papillomaviruses and adenoviruses.
Advances in sequencing techniquesDNA ancient systems now make it possible to investigate interactions between viruses and prehistoric human populations with unprecedented precision. It is based on a recent technique used by researchers to analyze Neanderthal remains discovered in Russia. Using the raw sequences, they looked for viral remnants in the genome data, mapping them to three types of DNA viruses: adenoviruses, herpesviruses, and papillomaviruses. The results revealed the presence of remnants of these three groups of DNA viruses as well as other pathogens.
This discovery raises the following question: Could pathogens have played a key role in the extinction of our close evolutionary relatives? In any case, the authors of a previously published study (which is therefore not yet peer-reviewed) suggest that Neanderthals probably carried the same type of virus that we carry today. Adenovirus, for example, can cause not only cold symptoms in modern humans, but also an infection of the tonsils. The Epstein-Barr virus, which is part of the herpesvirus, is extremely widespread and can cause mononucleosis, as well as
as recent research suggests, Multiple sclerosis. As for papillomaviruses, they are known for their association with cervical cancer.
” Our data show that these groups could represent the viruses that actually infected Neanderthals “, said the main author of the study, Marcelo Briones, at A new scientist. The researchers now hope to be able to synthesize the discovered viruses and infect human cells in the laboratory to see how they react to homo sapiens.
Still, according to Briones, “this discovery does not mean that viruses alone could have caused the extinction of Neanderthals.” He explains that today’s people are infected with about q0 virus groups during their lifetime, and that this could have happened to prehistoric people as well. On the other hand, this study supports the theory of some scientists according to which viruses could be involved in one way or another in this extinction.
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During their study, paleogeneticists were also faced with another dilemma: the risk of contamination with modern viruses. However, by comparing ancient viral sequences with modern sequences, they were able to show that none matched recent strains. ” In particular, herpes viruses may have been the main cause of Neanderthal extinction, but more testing needs to be done to confirm this. », concludes Briones.