Paleoparasitclogy of Chagas disease revaled by infected tissues from Chilean mummies

Mummified tissues were sampled from bodies stored at the Museo Arqueologico de San Pedro de Atacama, northern Chile, dated from 2000 years BP-1400 AD, and Trypanosoma cruzi DNA was recovered using polymerase chain reaction (P CR) methodology. Amplification of the conserved region of the minicircle mo lecule of T. cruzi was achieved in four of the six samples tested. Amplifie d products corresponding to genetic fragments of the parasite were tested b y hybridization experiments with positive results for T. cruzi specific mol ecular probe. The origin and dispersion of T. cruzi human infection is disc ussed as well as the molecular paleoparasitological approach, and what it m ay represent in an evolutionary perspective. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.