Insights from ancient DNA analysis of Egyptian human mummies: clues to disease and kinship.

The molecular Egyptology field started in the mid-eighties with the first publication on the ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis of an Egyptian mummy. Egypt has been a major interest for historians, archeologists, laymen as well as scientists. The aDNA research on Egyptian biological remains has been fueled by their abundance and relatively well-preserved states through artificial mummification and by the advanced analytical techniques. Early doubts of aDNA integrity within the Egyptian mummies and data authenticity were later abated with studies proving successfully authenticated aDNA retrieval. The current review tries to recapitulate the published studies presenting paleogenomic evidence of disease diagnosis and kinship establishment for the Egyptian human remains. Regarding disease diagnosis, the prevailing literature was on paleogenomic evidence of infectious diseases in the human remains. A series of reports presented evidence for the presence of tuberculosis and/or malaria. In addition, there were solitary reports of the presence of leprosy, diphtheria, bacteremia, toxoplasmosis, schistosomiasis and leishmaniasis. On the contrary, paleogenomic evidence of the presence of rare diseases was quite scarce and mentioned only in two articles. On the other hand, kinship analysis of Egyptian human remains, including that of Tutankhamen, was done using both mitochondrial DNA sequences and nuclear DNA markers, to establish family relationships in four studies. It is clear that the field of molecular Egyptology is still a largely unexplored territory. Nevertheless, the paleogenomic investigation of Egyptian remains could make significant contributions to biomedical sciences (e.g. elucidation of coevolution of human host-microbe interrelationship) as well as to evidence-based archeology.

The pattern of CD44 and matrix metalloproteinase 9 expression is a useful predictor of ulcerative colitis-associated dysplasia and neoplasia.

Ulcerative colitis (UC)-associated neoplasia presumably evolves through a chronic inflammation-dysplasia-adenocarcinoma sequence in which a corporation of several factors takes place. The grade of dysplasia is important in further development of colorectal cancer. CD44 is a cell adhesion molecule and acts as a docking receptor for matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9). The aims of this study are to assess UC-associated dysplasia and to distinguish regenerative changes from premalignant ones through detecting pattern of CD44 and MMP-9 expression in different UC lesions. Fifty-four samples of UC and UC-associated carcinoma were collected and examined for the immunohistochemical expression of CD44 and MMP-9 in the colon mucosa. Correlation between their expression and the severity of dysplasia were also statistically analyzed. Homogenous membranous staining pattern of CD44 was detected in all cases of regenerative atypia (negative for dysplasia) and most of indefinite for dysplasia (IND) cases, whereas most dysplastic (low-grade and high-grade dysplasia) cases showed irregular staining pattern. CD44 expression pattern was significantly correlated with grade of dysplasia in UC (P = .0001); on the other hand, MMP-9 expression was significantly increased in the dysplastic and neoplastic cases than in nondysplastic cases (regenerative atypia and IND) (P = .0001). Significant correlation was found between irregular CD44 staining pattern and MMP-9 expression (P = .0001). Irregular staining pattern of CD44 together with increased MMP-9 expression in UC-associated dysplasia predicts advanced disease and aids in the differentiation of regenerative atypia from UC-associated dysplasia as well as grading of IND cases.