SEARCHNARRATIVE_REVIEWepidemiology, preclinical research

narrative_review·epidemiology, preclinical research, biomedical research, research methods·PMC10090864

Studying ancient human oral microbiomes could yield insights into the evolutionary history of noncommunicable diseases

F1000Research · 7 authors, 8 centres

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This narrative review proposes using ancient oral microbiome analysis as a novel method to study the historical prevalence and risk factors of modern noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).

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This narrative review explores the potential of using ancient human oral microbiome data to investigate the evolutionary history of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and Alzheimer's. The authors first review established associations between modern oral microbiomes and these NCDs. They then propose that reconstructing NCD-related microbial traits from ancient dental calculus could provide proxies for past disease risk, offering insights into how diet, lifestyle, and environmental changes have influenced health over time. However, the paper emphasizes major challenges and limitations, including the need for better archaeological metadata, the fact that modern risk factors may not apply to ancient populations, the potential low prevalence of some NCDs in the past, and technical difficulties with ancient DNA fragmentation and reference databases.

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narrative_review

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epidemiology

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ORIGINAL PAPER

PMC10090864

Studying ancient human oral microbiomes could yield insights into the evolutionary history of noncommunicable diseases

F1000Research

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ABSTRACT

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) have played a critical role in shaping human evolution and societies. Despite the exceptional impact of NCDs economically and socially, little is known about the prevalence or impact of these diseases in the past as most do not leave distinguishing features on the human skeleton and are not directly associated with unique pathogens. The inability to identify NCDs in antiquity precludes researchers from investigating how changes in diet, lifestyle, and environments modulate NCD risks in specific populations and from linking evolutionary processes to modern health patterns and disparities. In this review, we highlight how recent advances in ancient DNA (aDNA) sequencing and analytical methodologies may now make it possible to reconstruct NCD-related oral microbiome traits in past populations, thereby providing the first proxies for ancient NCD risk. First, we review the direct and indirect associations between modern oral microbiomes and NCDs, specifically cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis, and Alzheimer's disease. We then discuss how oral microbiome features associated with NCDs in modern populations may be used to identify previously unstudied sources of morbidity and mortality differences in ancient groups. Finally, we conclude with an outline of the challenges and limitations of employing this approach, as well as how they might be circumvented. While significant experimental work is needed to verify that ancient oral microbiome markers are indeed associated with quantifiable health and survivorship outcomes, this new approach is a promising path forward for evolutionary health research.

CITATION EXPORT

Abigail S Gancz, Laura S Weyrich, Taylor van Doren et al.. Studying ancient human oral microbiomes could yield insights into the evolutionary history of noncommunicable diseases. F1000Research. (2023). https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.129036.2

AUTHORS

7 · 8 CENTRES

Abigail S Gancz, Laura S Weyrich, Taylor van Doren, Taylor van Doren, Abigail Gancz, Sarah Schrader, Abigail Gancz

1Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, 16802, USA
2School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, 5005, Australia
3Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, 16802, USA
1Sitka Sound Science Center, Sitka, AK, USA
1Sitka Sound Science Center, Sitka, AK, USA
Pennsylvania State University, USA
1Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
Pennsylvania State University, USA