Medicine: Egyptian mummy clue to disease

Nerves preserved in Egyptian mummies still contain the chemicals their cells used to communicate. Scientists hope that studying the neurotransmitters might yield clues about the diseases that afflicted our ancestors.

The team took nerves from the ankles of seven Egyptian mummies embalmed between 2,000 and 3,500 years ago and from a 1,000-year-old Peruvian mummy, New Scientist magazine reported.

After embedding the samples in wax and slicing them into sections the scientists incubated them with antibodies that recognise certain neurotransmitters. Three of the mummies contained traces of a neurotransmitter called galanin. Four mummies tested positive for an enzyme, nitric oxide synthase, which makes another important nerve signaller, nitric oxide.

According to the mastermind behind the project, Otto Appenzeller, retired professor of neurology and medicine at the University of New Mexico, the discovery has more than novelty value.

It could provide information about the historical incidence of diabetes, alcoholism and other disorders that cause damage to peripheral nerves.