King Charles VIII of France's Death: From an Unsubstantiated Traumatic Brain Injury to More Realistic Hypotheses.

On April 7, 1498, Charles VIII, King of France, attended a game of palm in the ditches of the Château d'Amboise. The 27-year-old King suddenly collapsed and became comatose. He laid down, almost on his own, on a straw mat that was hastily arranged, and he died 9 hours later.

Five millennia of Bartonella quintana bacteraemia.

During the two World Wars, Bartonella quintana was responsible for trench fever and is now recognised as an agent of re-emerging infection. Many reports have indicated widespread B. quintana exposure since the 1990s.

Tracing back ancient oral microbiomes and oral pathogens using dental pulps from ancient teeth.

Ancient dental pulps are highly precious samples because they conserve DNA from humans and blood-borne pathogens for ages. However, little is known about the microbial communities present in dental pulps. Here, we analyzed ancient and modern dental pulp samples from different time periods and geographic regions and found that they are colonized by distinct microbial communities, which can be differentiated from other oral cavity samples.