One of classical music’s most influential composers, Ludwig van Beethoven, died nearly two centuries ago in Vienna at the age of 56, and scientists are now using an unprecedented technique to try to make sense of his untimely death.
DNA analysis of locks of hair sought to learn more about the German composer’s untimely death on March 26, 1827.
The study, published this Wednesday in the scientific journal Current Biology, revealed strong genetic predispositions to liver diseaseas well as infection by Hepatitis B at the end of life, two factors that probably contributed to his death, probably from cirrhosis, aggravated by alcohol consumption.
However, the researchers they could not explain the cause of his progressive deafness, which caused the author of the 9th symphony so much suffering.
In 1802 the composer had expressed his wish, in a letter to his brothers written in a moment of despair, that his illness be described after his death and made public.
We seek to fulfill this wish,” said Tristan Begg, a researcher at the University of Cambridge and lead author of the study, during a press conference.
Although the mystery still persists around some of the many pathologies that Beethoven suffered, the scientists were “very lucky (…) to obtain such fascinating results,” said Begg, who is at the origin of this project started in 2014.
Until now, investigations into Beethoven’s health were mainly based on his correspondence, his diary, his medical notes or even the autopsy report.
This time, the scientists analyzed eight locks of hair presented as belonging to Beethoven and coming from public or private collections.
The investigation made it possible to determine that five of these strands of hair they were the same manwith reforms dating from the early nineteenth century.
These five strands of hair, spanning the last seven years of Beethoven’s life, are almost certainly authentic, according to the researchers.
Three others, however, were disqualified, including one that had been used to support the hypothesis of death from lead poisoning, but which actually belonged to a woman.
The DNA sequencing took place in Germany in the laboratory of the Max-Plank-Institute for Anthropology in Leipzig, where prehistoric humans are often studied.
Unlike bone analyses, “in the hair, the DNA is highly degraded,” explains Johannes Krause, head of the genetics department at this institute and co-author of the study.
It was difficult to collect enough DNA to assemble the genome,” he explained.
Several meters of hair were used and, finally, three quarters of the genome (all the genes of a living being) could be mapped.
Beethoven, who had at least two bouts of jaundice, the first of which was in 1821, had “a considerable genetic predisposition” to liver disease, the study concluded.
It also revealed that Beethoven had a hepatitis B virus infection, at least during the last months of his life, but it could have been earlier. However, a chronic infection is one of the main causes of cirrhosis, being known that Beethoven drank a lot.
Therefore, we believe that their disease stems from an interaction” between these three factors, explained Markus Nöthen, also a co-author of the study.
On the other hand, the researchers could not reach a definitive conclusion about the composer’s intestinal problems, excluding lactose intolerance, nor especially about his deafness, which could be caused by otosclerosis or Paget’s disease.
To conclude the work, the scientists compared Beethoven’s DNA with that of five Belgians who shared with the composer a distant relative who lived in the 16th century, Aert van Beethoven.
To his surprise, the Y chromosome of these five men does not match that of the musician.
According to the researchers, the only possible explanation is an extramarital affair, somewhere between the seven generations that separate this common ancestor and Beethoven’s birth in Bonn in 1770.
Source: Observadora
