Preservation of whole antibodies within ancient teeth

Barry Shaw; Thomas McDonnell; Elizabeth Radley; Brian Thomas; Lynn Smith; Carol A L Davenport; Silvia Gonzalez; Anisur Rahman; Rob Layfield

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.107575

Preservation of whole antibodies within ancient teeth

iScience. 2023 Aug 9;26(9):107575. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107575. eCollection 2023 Sep 15.

Authors

Barry Shaw¹, Thomas McDonnell², Elizabeth Radley³, Brian Thomas⁴, Lynn Smith⁵, Carol A L Davenport⁶, Silvia Gonzalez⁶, Anisur Rahman², Rob Layfield¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham Medical School, Nottingham, UK.
² Centre for Rheumatology Research, Division of Medicine, UCL, London, UK.
³ Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
⁴ Mass Spectrometry Research Group, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
⁵ Norton Priory Museum and Gardens, Runcorn, UK.
⁶ Research Centre for Evolutionary Anthropology and Paleoecology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.

Abstract

Archaeological remains can preserve some proteins into deep time, offering remarkable opportunities for probing past events in human history. Recovering functional proteins from skeletal tissues could uncover a molecular memory related to the life-history of the associated remains. We demonstrate affinity purification of whole antibody molecules from medieval human teeth, dating to the 13^th-15^th centuries, from skeletons with different putative pathologies. Purified antibodies are intact retaining disulphide-linkages, are amenable to primary sequences analysis, and demonstrate apparent immunoreactivity against contemporary EBV antigen on western blot. Our observations highlight the potential of ancient antibodies to provide insights into the long-term association between host immune factors and ancient microbes, and more broadly retain a molecular memory related to the natural history of human health and immunity.

Keywords: Biological sciences; Paleobiochemistry; Paleobiology.