Bacteria from the syphilis group were already present in Brazil before Cabral arrived

In science, historians and health experts debate when, how, and why syphilis spread in the Americas. In this discussionThere are those who wonder whether Christopher Columbus' crew bore any responsibility, since the disease spread through the continent's port cities in the 15th century.

Now, new research has found more evidence to answer these questions. This is because scientists analyzed the bacteria found in the bones of a person who died two thousand years ago. During the study researchers Find a different type of disease that is not sexually transmitted.

The study was the result of cooperation between Brazilian researchers from the University of São Paulo, and scientists from the Universities of Zurich and Basel in Switzerland. The results were recently published in the journal nature.

Understand the research

Researchers were able to access the bones of Jabuticabeira II sambaki, located on the coast of Santa Catarina. When analyzing this material for evidence of diseases, they found several diseases that fit with leptospirosis, a group in which it is found Syphilis.

So, they began examining the bones of four people, some of whom had obvious changes indicative of disease. When they isolated the genetic material, they determined that all pathogens, that is, bacteria present, could fit into the strain classification Endemic Treponema pallidum.

Moreover, it is responsible for syphilis, also called kissing or endemic syphilis, which is a contagious disease, from the group of spirochetes, but not transmitted through sexual contact.

“This work is extremely important because it demonstrates the power of molecular paleontology, an interdisciplinary field of study that aims to apply molecular techniques to fossil material in order to recover, analyze and characterize molecules such as DNA,” the researchers wrote. “It was possible to obtain DNA of good quality,” the researchers wrote. “This allowed us to have confidence in the results found.”

Although it does not provide evidence of origin Syphilis The research findings themselves open up ways to better understand bacteria. For researchers, understanding the genetics and evolution of pathogens is key.