Ancient DNA Reveals Humans May Have Been Carrying Cancer-Linked Viruses Far Longer Than We Realized
Cancer is a scary disease that plagues too many lives today. But it turns out, humans have been afflicted with this chronic illness way longer than previously predicted. Ötzi, “the Iceman,” froze in the Alps, but his remains provided powerful insights into ancient clothing, weaponry, and more. Unfortunately, ancient humans endured a tough time before they died, from broken bones to intestinal parasites. A new study found that the species was afflicted with another chronic disease: the cancerous human papillomavirus, HPV16. The research published in bioRxiv highlighted the connection between genetic diseases that humans carry and those of the ancient hominins. Both Ötzi and a 45,000-year-old Homo sapiens fossil from western Siberia were found to have stretches of DNA from the virus.
Although the research is yet to be peer-reviewed, it provides insight into humans' first encounter with the deadly, cancer-causing virus. “This is a very nice finding,” says Ville Pimenoff, a computational geneticist at the University of Oulu, according to Science. “Homo sapiens was basically infected by these viruses for all of its existence," the scientist added. As per the outlet, hundreds of human papillomaviruses, or HPV, can live in and on the human body without causing much harm. But in many cases, a dozen of these viruses can cause cancer of the throat or genitals.
According to a 2023 study, more than 3,000 Finnish teens who were injected with HPV vaccines didn't show the presence of the targeted virus after 8 years, but its variants were observed to have surged. Pimenoff led the Finnish study and realized that understanding the diversity of HPV lineages is important for recognizing the evolution of the virus and its effect on the host body. The researcher, along with his team, had previously studied the notorious HPV16 virus that has caused cervical cancers in many humans over the years. The team concluded that the virus had always existed among ancient humans and evolved into variants over the past centuries. They also claimed that the virus infecting a modern human is a dominant variant of HPV16.
The recent study examined the DNA sequences collected from Ötzi and a fossil known as Ust-Ishim to search for a possible presence of the virus. The research led by molecular biologist Marcelo Briones of the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP) identified thousands of DNA segments that matched portions of the HPV16 genome. “We’re pretty confident there’s a signal there … We have the oldest evidence of HPV,” says study first author Juliana Yazigi, a bioinformatics student at UNIFESP.
The scientists believe that variants of HPV16 were prevalent in Homo sapiens, and that our species likely transmitted the virus to the Neanderthals rather than the other way around. Koenraad Van Doorslaer, a virologist at the University of Arizona, thinks the new finding is “potentially challenging the idea that HPV was [due to] this Neanderthal interbreeding event." Van Doorslaer thinks that this will probably not make better cures, vaccines, or other treatments, but remains optimistic, saying, "Not all science should be about that. It should just be about learning cool things."
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