New classification of tuberculosis to support efforts to eliminate the disease

A new way to classify tuberculosis (TB) that aims to improve focus on the early stages of the disease has been presented by an international team involving researchers at UCL (University College London).

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON

A new way to classify tuberculosis (TB) that aims to improve focus on the early stages of the disease has been presented by an international team involving researchers at UCL.

The new framework, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, seeks to replace the approach of the last half century of defining TB as either active (i.e., causing illness and potentially infectious to others) or latent (being infected with the bacterium that causes TB [M tuberculosis] but feeling well and not infectious to others) – an approach researchers say is limiting progress in eradicating the disease.

Of note, large surveys conducted in over 20 countries recently have shown than many people with infectious TB feel well.

Under the new classification, there are four disease states: clinical (with symptoms) and subclinical (without symptoms), with each of these classed as either infectious or non-infectious. The fifth state is M. tuberculosis infection that has not progressed to disease – that is, M tuberculosis may be present in the body and alive, but there are no signs of the disease that are visible to the naked eye, for example with imaging.

The researchers say they hope the International Consensus for Early TB (ICE-TB) framework, developed by a diverse group of 64 experts, will help lead to better diagnosis and treatment of the early stages of TB which have historically been overlooked in research.

TB remains the world’s most deadly infectious disease currently and has caused over one billion deaths in the last 200 years. An estimated three million cases a year are not reported to health systems and more than half of these cases will be asymptomatic.

The international team was led by researchers at UCL, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI), University of Cape Town, Imperial College London and the South African Medical Research Council.

Dr Hanif Esmail, co-lead author at the UCL Institute for Global Health and MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL, said: “The binary paradigm of active disease versus latent infection has resulted in a one-size-fits-all antibiotic treatment for disease, but designed for those with the most severe form of disease. This leads to potential over-treatment of individuals with subclinical TB.

“A key research priority now is to identify the best combination, dosage and duration of antibiotics to treat each TB state, as well as the benefits of treating the subclinical states.”

Professor Rein Houben (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), co-lead author of the paper, said: “While providing treatment to people who become very sick with TB has saved millions of lives we are not stopping transmission of the disease.”

“To prevent transmission of TB, we need to move away from focusing just on the very sick and look at earlier disease states, identifying people who may be infectious for months or years before they develop TB symptoms. 

“Our consensus framework replaces the old binary concept of ‘active’ versus ‘latent’ TB with a more detailed classification system that we hope, if widely adopted, could help to improve treatment for those with early-stage TB and drive forward efforts to eradicate the disease.”

The framework was developed via a Delphi process designed to reach a consensus among a diverse group. The process began with a scoping review of papers and online surveys of experts and culminated in a two-day meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, of researchers from a range of disciplines as well as policymakers, clinicians, and TB survivors.

Dr Anna Coussens, co-lead author from WEHI, said: “One key finding in the consensus is moving the disease threshold and acknowledging that disease does not just start with symptoms or transmission, but when tissue is damaged.

“In time we hope our framework can contribute to TB elimination by leading to improved early diagnosis and treatment, optimising patient outcomes and minimising transmission.”

The researchers noted that the disease process was non-linear – that people may fluctuate between infectious and non-infectious states, and between the presence and absence of symptoms or signs.

They also said that better diagnostic tools were needed to identify many of the TB states. For instance, there is currently no test to detect a viable M tuberculosis infection (i.e., one where the bacteria are physiologically active), as opposed to a non-viable infection or recent infection that has cleared.

The international team involved stakeholders from 19 countries including International Union Against TB and Lung Disease, The StopTB partnership, World Health Organization, FIND, National TB Programmes, TB Proof, and researchers from a number of universities and medical research institutes.

The work was supported by Wellcome, the National Institutes of Health/RePORT RSA, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Medical Research Council, the European Research Council, and the National Health and Medical Research Council.

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JOURNAL

The Lancet Respiratory Medicine

DOI

10.1016/S2213-2600(24)00028-6 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

International consensus classification of early tuberculosis states to guide research for improved care and prevention: A Delphi exercise

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

22-Mar-2024

 

RaDPi-U: A fast and convenient drug screening with urine samples

Researchers develop a rapid urine test that can detect 40 drugs reliably in as little as three minutes.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

KINDAI UNIVERSITY

 

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THE RADPI-U TECHNIQUE IS EXTREMELY SIMPLE TO PERFORM AND PRODUCES RELIABLE DRUG SCREENING RESULTS IN LESS THAN THREE MINUTES. WITH MANY ADVANTAGES COMPARED TO CONVENTIONAL SCREENING METHODS, IT IS POISED TO BECOME A POWERFUL TOOL FOR FORENSIC INVESTIGATORS.

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CREDIT: DR. ISSEY TAKAHASHI FROM NAGOYA UNIVERSITY

Drugs, both legal and illegal, cause millions of cases of severe intoxication every year, leading to health complications and even fatalities. Often, they are also implicated in violent and sexual harassment crimes, as well as accidents. Obtaining detailed information about the drugs consumed by a criminal or victim is often challenging. Forensic professionals rely on drug screening techniques performed on biological samples, such as blood or saliva, to gather crucial evidence.

 

Today, various types of practical drug screening methods exist, each with their own unique advantages and drawbacks. For example, immunological drug screening tests can provide results quickly, but are limited to very specific drugs and often show false positives. In contrast, techniques based on mass spectrometry (MS), which analyze the mass-to-charge ratio of captured ions, tend to be more accurate. However, conventional MS approaches require careful sample preparation steps, which makes them somewhat tedious and difficult to use for non-experts.

 

Against this background, a research team from Japan has developed a promising drug screening technique dubbed “RaDPi-U” that can rapidly detect the presence of 40 forensically relevant drugs from urine samples. Their study, detailing the performance of their approach in preliminary tests, was published in the journal Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry on March 25, 2024. Members of this research team included Professor Kei Zaitsu from Kindai University, Dr. Kazuaki Hisatsune of the Forensic Science Laboratory at Aichi Prefectural Police Headquarters, Dr. Akira Iguchi of the Research Laboratory on Environmentally-conscious Developments and Technologies (E-code), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Dr. Masaru Taniguchi of Nagoya City Public Health Research Institute, and Dr. Tomomi Asano of Kinjo Gakuin University.

 

The proposed technique is based on a combination of probe electrospray ionization and tandem mass spectrometry (PESI-MS/MS). Simply put, PESI involves capturing molecules to be analyzed using a thin metal probe, which induces a strong electric field that ionizes compounds adsorbed onto the surface of the probe. These captured molecules, or “analytes,” are transferred to a series of mass spectrometers, which determine the mass-to-charge ratio and additional structural information to determine the concentration of specific compounds (drugs).

 

The procedure for RaDPi-U is extremely simple, requiring only a few steps. First, 10 microliters of urine are collected from the screened individual and mixed with a substance predetermined as an internal standard, and ethanol. Then, after thoroughly mixing the sample using a vortex mixer (pre-treatment: 1.5 minutes), the same is pipetted and laid onto a sample plate for PESI. Finally, the plate is set into the PESI-MS/MS (analysis time: 1.5 minutes), which produces results in less than three minutes and automatically reports them using a built-in software.

 

The researchers carefully investigated the reliability and accuracy of the results for multiple concentrations of each of the 40 screened drugs. Compared to established methods, the proposed technique exhibited an equal or better lower limit of detection for all drugs, meaning that it can detect drug concentrations as minuscule as fractions of a nanogram per microliter for several compounds. Moreover, the measurements were highly repeatable, demonstrating the reliability of RaDPi-U. This was further proved through tests with postmortem urine samples. To top things off, this method requires only one single substance as an internal standard rather than a specific compound for each screened drug, which means setting up the device is straightforward.

 

Overall, the team has high hopes that RaDPi-U will prove to be a powerful tool for forensic departments everywhere. “Our method boasts simplicity and user-friendliness, enabling even non-professionals to conduct drug analysis with ease,” remarks Prof. Zaitsu. “In essence, our research streamlines drug analysis to unprecedented levels, thereby fostering long-term efforts to curb drug-related crimes.” He also notes that RaDPi-U has potential not only in forensic fields but also in tasks related to clinical toxicology.

 

Additional efforts are already underway to make the proposed method even more useful. “While this study is preliminary and the number of currently detectable drugs is limited to 40, we are actively expanding the range of targeted substances, aiming to enhance both the speed and scope of detection,” comments Dr. Hisatsune. The researchers are also developing a similar method for blood samples, called RaDPi-B, which will be essential when urine samples are unavailable or in case of drugs for which urine-based testing is not applicable.

 

Let us hope these promising techniques will serve as a stepping stone toward a world free from the scourge of drug abuse.

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JOURNAL

Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry

DOI

10.1007/s00216-024-05215-x 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Human tissue samples

ARTICLE TITLE

Development of a rapid-fire drug screening method by probe electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry for human urine (RaDPi-U)

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

24-Mar-2024

 

Physician work hours, especially for male doctors, have declined since 1987

CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

Physicians in Canada, especially male physicians, are working fewer hours than they did 3 decades ago, and these long-term trends must be considered in workforce planning, according to new research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.231166.

"Canadian physicians' work hours, crucial for health care access and planning, have seen a long-term decline, especially among male and married physicians, suggesting a shift towards better work–life balance," said Dr. Boris Kralj, Department of Economics, Centre for Health Economics & Policy Analysis, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.

Using Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey, researchers from McMaster University conducted a study on long-term trends in physician work hours, with data from 1987 to 2021. They hope that the findings will help governments make smart health care policy decisions, inform physician work force planning, and foster gender equity.

Highlights:

• Compared with the general population, physicians worked more hours per week, about 20% more hours in 2021
• Weekly physician hours decreased 13.5% from 52.7 hours per week in 1987 to 45.6 in 2019
• Average hours worked by male physicians declined markedly beginning around 1997
• No differences in declines in hours among urban versus rural settings, incorporated versus unincorporated physicians, physicians younger or older than 45 years, or those with or without children under age 5 years, were apparent
• Hours worked varied by province, but these differences declined over time

The early part of the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a 15% decline in working hours, with an 11% decline among male physicians and a 20% decline in hours worked by female physicians in the second quarter of 2020. However, by the end of 2020, hours worked reverted to prepandemic levels.

The study's authors suggest that a desire for better work–life balance may be driving these long-term trends. For a long time, doctors have been expected to work very long hours and be available all the time. This has led to unhealthy workplaces.

"[W]e propose that a shift in male physicians' preferences toward achieving better work–life balance is an important contributing factor. The question of whether these trends are related to physician burnout is relevant. Characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, detachment from work, and reduced personal accomplishment, burnout can lead to negative effects on health, lower productivity, reduced work hours, and even exiting medical practice," write the authors.

They found no evidence that higher payments contributed to physicians working fewer hours. The observed decrease in hours persisted during periods of both rising and stable payment levels.

These trends highlight the need for Canada to have enough doctors to meet its population's evolving needs. It is important for policy-makers to consider not just how many doctors there are, but also how many hours they work.

"The way forward will likely involve policy-makers increasing the size of the medical workforce — including physicians and other occupations involved in interdisciplinary care — faster than population growth to accommodate historical and potential future hour reductions (and increasing demand from an aging population)," write the authors.

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JOURNAL

Canadian Medical Association Journal

DOI

10.1503/cmaj.231166 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Long-term trends in the work hours of physicians in Canada

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Mar-2024

 

Sweeping review reveals latest evidence on the diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of ADHD

A comprehensive literature review from USC researchers summarizes the most robust findings on addressing ADHD in children and adolescents, which will inform updated clinical practice guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics

KECK SCHOOL OF MEDICINE OF USC

Hundreds of studies are published each year on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but more work is needed to ensure those findings improve lives.

With input from expert stakeholders across the field, researchers at the Southern California Evidence Review Center, part of the Keck School of Medicine of USC, have synthesized the latest insights so that they can ultimately inform clinical practice. Broadly, they found that both medications and psychosocial treatments work for treating ADHD and that children with the condition can and do get better.

“We have more research than ever on ADHD, but we need to summarize it in a reliable and valid way,” said Susanne Hempel, PhD, a professor of clinical population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine and director of the Southern California Evidence Review Center, who oversaw the work.

The team, which included researchers from the Southern California Evidence-based Practice Center, the Keck School of Medicine’s division of child psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Behavioral Health Institute, reviewed more than 23,000 publications on ADHD. Their work was commissioned by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

The results, just published in two companion papers in the journal Pediatrics, answer big questions about what works to effectively diagnose and treat ADHD, and point to ongoing gaps in the research, including how best to monitor the condition’s progression over time. Clinicians selected by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) will now use the evidence review to create updated clinical guidelines that inform best practices in ADHD care across the nation.

“Parents, teachers and providers need evidence-based information about ADHD,” Hempel said. “We included only the most robust studies in our review, which enables us to make strong evidence statements.”

New findings on diagnosis and treatment

Before beginning the literature review, the research team developed their questions and protocols in collaboration with ADHD experts across the field to ensure they were asking and answering questions that could directly benefit patients, families and providers. During the process, the researchers also posted their preliminary findings and welcomed feedback during a 45-day public comment period.

The team conducted an extensive search that was not restricted to diagnostic tools or treatment approaches already known to be effective. From more than 23,000 publications, the researchers selected 550 studies for the final analysis. Studies were selected if they met the team’s rigorous inclusion criteria, which prioritized rigorous study designs such as randomized controlled trials.

For diagnosis of ADHD, many tools are available, including parent and teacher rating scales, patient self-reports, neuropsychological tests, EEG approaches, imaging, biomarkers, activity monitoring and observation. For several approaches, the researchers found a substantial variation in results, with some studies indicating a given method was highly effective and others indicating that it performed poorly. “We’re getting better at diagnosing ADHD, but research is still characterized by a lot of variation,” Hempel said.

Many treatments for ADHD have been rigorously tested, building a strong evidence base for medications (including both stimulants and non-stimulants), as well as psychosocial approaches, such as behavior modification. Other non-drug treatments the team analyzed include cognitive training, neurofeedback, physical exercise, nutrition and supplements, parent support, and school interventions.

“Medications have the strongest evidence for improving not only ADHD symptoms, but also other problems that often accompany ADHD, such as oppositional and disruptive behaviors,” said Bradley Peterson, MD, director of the Institute for the Developing Mind at Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and the lead author of the review.

Monitoring ADHD over time

In addition to reviewing the evidence on diagnosis and treatment, the researchers explored what is known about ongoing monitoring of ADHD: How can providers assess whether a child or adolescent needs to continue treatment for the condition? Experts across the field agreed that the question is a critical one, but few studies have explored the question. The evidence review team concluded that more research is needed on monitoring ADHD over time.

The publications will now be used to support an update of the AAP’s clinical practice guidelines for ADHD, providing up-to-date advice for how best to diagnose, evaluate and treat the condition.

“The overarching takeaway: ADHD is treatable. There are lots of studies that can show us that children absolutely can get better,” Hempel said.

About this research

In addition to Drs. Peterson and Hempel, the study’s other authors are Joey Trampush, Morah Brown, Margaret Maglione, Maria Bolshakova, Mary Rozelle, Jeremy Miles, Sheila Pakdaman and Aneesa Motala among others from the Southern California Evidence Review Center, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California.

This work is supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality [Contract No. 75Q80120D00009] and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute [Publication No. 2023-SR-03]. More information about AHRQ’s Effective Health Care program, which funds this work, may be found at: https://effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/about.

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JOURNAL

PEDIATRICS

DOI

10.1542/peds.2024-065787 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Treatments for ADHD in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Mar-2024

 

Honey bees at risk for colony collapse from longer, warmer fall seasons

Cold storage for colonies could help mitigate climate change effects

Peer-Reviewed Publication

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

 

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WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCHERS AND STUDENTS COLLECT SAMPLES AND PERFORM HONEY BEE COLONY HEALTH ASSESSMENTS IN ORCHARDS NEAR MODESTO, CA. EVERY YEAR MORE THAN 2 MILLION HONEY BEE HIVES FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY ARE MOVED TO CALIFORNIA TO POLLINATE ALMOND TREES IN FEBRUARY. TO MANAGE BEE HEALTH AND THE LOGISTICS OF THE MOVE, MANY COMMERCIAL BEEKEEPERS ARE STARTING TO USE INDOOR COLD STORAGE FOR THEIR HIVES – A PRACTICE THAT RESEARCHERS HAVE FOUND MIGHT ALSO HELP PREVENT COLONY COLLAPSES FROM LONGER, WARM AUTUMNS DUE TO CLIMATE CHANGE.

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CREDIT: BRANDON HOPKINS, WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

PULLMAN, Wash. – The famous work ethic of honey bees might spell disaster for these busy crop pollinators as the climate warms, new research indicates.

Flying shortens the lives of bees, and worker honey bees will fly to find flowers whenever the weather is right, regardless of how much honey is already in the hive. Using climate and bee population models, researchers found that increasingly long autumns with good flying weather for bees raises the likelihood of colony collapse in the spring.

The study, published in Scientific Reports, focused on the Pacific Northwest but holds implications for hives across the U.S. The researchers also modeled a promising mitigation: putting colonies into indoor cold storage, so honey bees will cluster in their hive before too many workers wear out.

“This is a case where a small amount of warming, even in the near future, will make a big impact on honey bees,” said lead author Kirti Rajagopalan, a Washington State University climate researcher. “It’s not like this is something that can be expected 80 years from now. It is a more immediate impact that needs to be planned for.”

For this study, researchers ran simulations through a honey bee population dynamics model using climate projections for 2050 and the end of the century at 2100. They found that honey bee colonies that spend the winter outside in many areas of the Pacific Northwest would likely experience spring colony collapses in both the near- and long-term scenarios. This also occurred under a simulation where climate change continued as it is progressing now and one where greenhouse gas emissions were reduced in the near future.

Worker honey bees will forage for food whenever temperatures rise above about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. When it gets colder, they cluster in the hive, huddling with other bees, eating honey reserves and shivering, which helps keep the bees warm. In the spring, the adult worker bees start flying again. That means they also start dying. If too many older worker bees die before their replacements emerge ready to forage, the whole colony can collapse. Scientists have estimated this happens when there are fewer than 5,000 to 9,000 adult bees in the hive.

This study found that colonies wintering outside in colder areas like Omak in the far north of Washington state might still do all right under climate change. But for honey bee colonies in many other places, like Richland, Washington near the border of Oregon, staying outside in the winter would mean the spring hive population would plummet to fewer than 9,000 adults by 2050 and less than 5,000 by the end of the century.

The authors note that the simulations just looked at seasonal factors like temperature, wind and the amount of daylight, making them fairly conservative models.

“Our simulations are showing that even if there is no nutritional stress, no pathogens, no pesticides – just the conditions in fall and winter are enough to compromise the age structure of a colony. So when the hive comes out of winter, the bees are dying faster than they're being born,” said co-author Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman, a research leader at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Carl Hayden Bee Research Center.

The researchers also simulated a potential mitigation, placing honey bee hive boxes in cold storage so the bees start to cluster earlier and save workers. For instance, in the Richland scenarios, by the end of the century, having bees in cold storage from October to April would boost the spring hive population to over 15,000 compared to around 5,000 to 8,000 if they were kept outside.

A relatively new practice, cold storage is gaining popularity among commercial beekeepers to help manage bee health and for the logistics involved in moving hives to California to pollinate almond trees in February, an event that draws more than two million hives from across the country.

“A lot of beekeepers are already practicing this management technique of storing bees indoors because it has a lot of immediate potential to help in a number of ways,” said co-author Brandon Hopkins, a WSU entomologist. “These findings demonstrate that there are additional benefits to this practice for the survival of colonies in a changing climate.”

This research received support from the Washington Department of Agriculture’s Specialty Crop Block Grant.

Washington State University researchers and students collect samples and perform honey bee colony health assessments in orchards near Modesto, CA. Every year more than 2 million honey bee hives from across the country are moved to California to pollinate almond trees in February. To manage bee health and the logistics of the move, many commercial beekeepers are starting to use indoor cold storage for their hives – a practice that researchers have found might also help prevent colony collapses from longer, warm autumns due to climate change.

WSU beeresearch3 (IMAGE)

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

Washington State University researchers and students collect samples and perform honey bee colony health assessments in orchards near Modesto, CA. Every year more than 2 million honey bee hives from across the country are moved to California to pollinate almond trees in February. To manage bee health and the logistics of the move, many commercial beekeepers are starting to use indoor cold storage for their hives – a practice that researchers have found might also help prevent colony collapses from longer, warm autumns due to climate change.

CREDIT

Brandon Hopkins, Washington State University

JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-024-55327-8 

ARTICLE TITLE

Warmer autumns and winters could reduce honey bee overwintering survival with potential risks for pollination services

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Mar-2024

 

Persian plateau unveiled as crucial hub for early human migration out of Africa

GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY

 

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PEBDEH CAVE LOCATED IN THE SOUTHERN ZAGROS MOUNTAINS. PEBDEH WAS OCCUPIED BY HUNTER-GATHERERS AS EARLY AS 42,000 YEARS AGO.

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CREDIT: MOHAMMAD JAVAD SHOAEE

A new study combining genetic, palaeoecological, and archaeological evidence has unveiled the Persian Plateau as a pivotal geographic location serving as a hub for Homo sapiens during the early stages of their migration out of Africa.  

This revelation sheds new light on the complex journey of human populations, challenging previous understandings of our species' expansion into Eurasia. 

The study, published in Nature Communications, highlights a crucial period between approximately 70,000 to 45,000 years ago when human populations did not uniformly spread across Eurasia, leaving a gap in our understanding of their whereabouts during this time frame. 

Key findings from the research include: 

• The Persian plateau as a hub for early human settlement: Using a novel genetic approach combined with palaeoecological modelling, the study revealed the Persian Plateau as the region where from population waves that settled all of Eurasia originated.

• This region emerged as a suitable habitat capable of supporting a larger population compared with other areas in West Asia. 

• Genetic resemblance in ancient and modern populations: The genetic component identified in populations from the Persian Plateau underlines its long-lasting differentiation in the area, compatible with the hub nature of the region, and is ancestral to the genetic components already known to have inhabited the Plateau.

• Such a genetic signature was detected thanks to a new approach that disentangles 40,000 years of admixture and other confounding events. This genetic connection underscores the Plateau's significance as a pivotal location for early human settlement and subsequent migrations. 

Study co-author Professor Michael Petraglia, Director of Griffith University’s Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, provided a much clearer picture of these early human movements. 

“Our multidisciplinary study provides a more coherent view of the ancient past, offering insights into the critical period between the Out of Africa expansion and the differentiation of Eurasian populations,” Professor Petraglia said.  

“The Persian Plateau emerges as a key region, underlining the need for further archaeological explorations." 

First author Leonardo Vallini of the University of Padova, Italy, said: “The discovery elucidates a 20,000 year long portion of the history of Homo sapiens outside of Africa, a timeframe during which we interacted with Neanderthal populations, and sheds light on the relationships between various Eurasian populations, providing crucial clues for understanding the demographic history of our species across Europe, East Asia, and Oceania.”  

Senior author, Professor Luca Pagani added: “The revelation of the Persian Plateau as a hub for early human migration opens new doors for archaeological exploration, enriching our understanding of our species' journey across continents and highlighting this region's pivotal role in shaping human history.” 

The study ‘The Persian Plateau served as Hub for Homo sapiens after the main Out of Africa dispersal’ has been published in Nature Communications. 

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-024-46161-7 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The Persian Plateau served as Hub for Homo sapiens after the main Out of Africa dispersal

20,000 years of shared history on the Persian plateau

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ESTONIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL

 

IMAGE: 

PERSIAN PLATEAU, THE MOST LIKELY PLACE WHERE THE ANCESTORS OF ALL PRESENT DAY NON AFRICANS LIVED FOR THE 20.000 YEARS THAT FOLLOWED THEIR MIGRATION OUT OF AFRICA. A PERIOD DURING WHICH THEY ALSO MIXED THEIR GENES WITH THE ONES OF THE NEANDERTHALS.

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CREDIT: CREDITS: THE AUTHORS OF THE ORIGINAL PUBLICATION

All present day non African human populations are the result of subdivisions that took place after their ancestors left Africa at least 60.000 years ago. How long did it take for these separations to take place? Almost 20.000 years, during which they were all part of a single population. Where did they live for all this time? We don’t know, yet.

This is a conversation that could have taken place one year ago, now it is possible to give clearer answers to these questions thanks to the study recently published in Nature Communications (1) led by the researchers from the University of Padova, in collaboration with the University of Bologna (Department of Cultural Heritage), the Griffith University of Brisbane, the Max Planck Institute of Jena and the University of Turin.

The ancestors of all present day Eurasians, Americans and Oceanians, moved Out of Africa between 70 and 60 thousand years ago. After reaching Eurasia these early settlers idled for some millennia as a homogeneous population, in a presumably localized area, before expanding their range across the whole continent and beyond. This event set the basis for the genetic divergence between present day Europeans and East Asians, and can be dated to around 45 thousand years ago. On the one hand, the dynamics that led to the broader colonization of Eurasia have been already reconstructed by some of the authors in a previous publication in 2022 (2), and occurred through a series of chronologically, genetically and culturally distinct expansions. On the other hand, the geographic area where the ancestors of all non Africans lived  after the Out of Africa and that acted as a “Hub” for  the subsequent movements of Homo sapiens has been the matter of a long standing debate, with most of West Asia, North Africa, South Asia or even South East Asia having been listed as potentially suitable locations.

In their latest work, the authors deployed a novel genetic approach and identified ancient and modern populations from the Persian Plateau as the ones carrying genetic traces that most closely resemble the features of the Hub population, pinpointing the area as the likely homeland of all early Eurasians. “The most difficult part” says Leonardo Vallini, first author of the study, “has been to disentangle the various confounding factors constituted by 45 thousand years of population movements and admixtures that took place after the Hub was settled”.

The multidisciplinary study also investigated the paleoecological characteristics of the area at the time, and confirmed it as suitable for human occupation, potentially capable of sustaining a larger population than other parts of West Asia. “Identifying the Persian Plateau as a Hub for early human migration opens new doors for archaeological and palaeoanthropological research” added co-author Professor Michael Petraglia of Griffith University in Brisbane.

In fact, the Persian plateau will be the focus of the ERC Synergy Project 'LAST NEANDERTHALS', recently awarded to co-author Stefano Benazzi, professor at the University of Bologna (Department of Cultural Heritage). "In line with the results of the study," says Benazzi, "this ERC project aims to explore and unravel the intricate biocultural events that occurred between 60,000 and 40,000 years ago, focusing also on the Persian Plateau".

“With our work we found a home to 20,000 years of shared history between Europeans, East Asians, Native Americans and Oceanians. This leg of the human journey out of Africa is fascinating, since it is the one where we also met and mixed our genes with the ones of Neanderthals” concluded Professor Luca Pagani, senior author of the study.

References

1. Leonardo Vallini, Carlo Zampieri, Mohamed Javad Shoaee, Eugenio Bortolini, Giulia Marciani, Serena Aneli, Telmo Pievani, Stefano Benazzi, Alberto Barausse, Massimo Mezzavilla, Michael D. Petraglia, Luca Pagani, The Persian Plateau served as Hub for Homo sapiens after the main Out of Africa dispersal, Nature Communications [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-46161-7]
2. Leonardo Vallini, Giulia Marciani, Serena Aneli, Eugenio Bortolini, Stefano Benazzi, Telmo Pievani, Luca Pagani. Genetics and Material Culture Support Repeated Expansions into Paleolithic Eurasia from a Population Hub Out of Africa, Genome Biology and Evolution, Volume 14, Issue 4, April 2022, evac045, https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evac045

 

Link to the study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-46161-7

Title: The Persian Plateau served as Hub for Homo sapiens after the main Out of Africa dispersal – «Nature Communications» – 2024

Authors: Leonardo Vallini, Carlo Zampieri, Mohamed Javad Shoaee, Eugenio Bortolini, Giulia Marciani, Serena Aneli, Telmo Pievani, Stefano Benazzi, Alberto Barausse, Massimo Mezzavilla, Michael D. Petraglia, Luca Pagani

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-024-46161-7 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The Persian Plateau served as Hub for Homo sapiens after the main Out of Africa dispersal

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Mar-2024