RESUMO
This essay questions evolutionary or Darwinian medicine for its uncritical adherence to evolutionary theory to explain diseases, which leaves aside the very vital process that transformed an "inert planet" into a "living one" where the nascent biological order subordinated the physicochemical one to prevail. The biological order is comparable to an "infinitely diverse harmonic concert", which has created and recreated, for eons, the environments conducive to its own permanence and evolution. The arrival of homo sapiens meant the cultural order emergence, which progressively supplanted, in its effects, the biological order by causing drastic and vertiginous changes in the planetary ecosystem that silenced the evolutionary process "without time to manifest". Adaptation as an ability to overcome adverse situations is a non-sense in the "harmonic concert"; instead, it is characteristic of the cultural order that imposes inhospitable and stressful environments on humans as inescapable adaptive demands. The vital quality of the biological order is the sequential anticipation of situations of interaction with significant objects in the environment, which enables the consummation of basic vital activities, emblematic of the state of maturity of living beings. To think that evolution explains chronic diseases is not only illusory but counterproductive because it covers up the root of our problems: a humanity in constant disharmony between bellicose ethnocentrisms, perpetrator of planetary devastation, whose supreme value is profit without limits.
Este ensayo cuestiona a la medicina evolutiva o darwiniana por su adhesión acrítica a la teoría evolucionista para explicar las enfermedades, que deja de lado el propio proceso vital que transformó un planeta "inerte" en uno "viviente", donde el orden biológico naciente subordinó al fisicoquímico imperante para prevalecer. El orden biológico es equiparable a un "concierto armónico infinitamente diverso", que ha creado y recreado, por eones, los ambientes propicios para su propia permanencia y evolución. El arribo del homo sapiens significó el surgimiento del orden cultural que suplantó progresivamente en sus efectos, al orden biológico, al provocar cambios drásticos y vertiginosos en el ecosistema planetario que silenciaron el proceso evolutivo "sin tiempo para manifestarse". La adaptación como aptitud para sobreponerse a situaciones adversas, es un contrasentido en el "concierto armónico"; en cambio, es característica del orden cultural que impone a los humanos ambientes inhóspitos y estresantes como exigencias adaptativas ineludibles. La cualidad vital propia del orden biológico es la anticipación secuencial de las situaciones de interacción con los objetos significativos del ambiente, que posibilita la consumación de las actividades vitales básicas, emblema del estado de madurez de los seres vivos. Pensar que la evolución explica las enfermedades crónicas no solo es ilusorio, sino contraproducente, porque encubre la raíz de nuestros problemas: una humanidad en constante disarmonía entre etnocentrismos belicosos, perpetradora de la devastación planetaria, cuyo valor supremo es el lucro sin límites.
Assuntos
Evolução Biológica , Ecossistema , HumanosRESUMO
Resumen Este ensayo cuestiona a la medicina evolutiva o darwiniana por su adhesión acrítica a la teoría evolucionista para explicar las enfermedades, que deja de lado el propio proceso vital que transformó un planeta "inerte" en uno "viviente", donde el orden biológico naciente subordinó al fisicoquímico imperante para prevalecer. El orden biológico es equiparable a un "concierto armónico infinitamente diverso", que ha creado y recreado, por eones, los ambientes propicios para su propia permanencia y evolución. El arribo del homo sapiens significó el surgimiento del orden cultural que suplantó progresivamente en sus efectos, al orden biológico, al provocar cambios drásticos y vertiginosos en el ecosistema planetario que silenciaron el proceso evolutivo "sin tiempo para manifestarse". La adaptación como aptitud para sobreponerse a situaciones adversas, es un contrasentido en el "concierto armónico"; en cambio, es característica del orden cultural que impone a los humanos ambientes inhóspitos y estresantes como exigencias adaptativas ineludibles. La cualidad vital propia del orden biológico es la anticipación secuencial de las situaciones de interacción con los objetos significativos del ambiente, que posibilita la consumación de las actividades vitales básicas, emblema del estado de madurez de los seres vivos. Pensar que la evolución explica las enfermedades crónicas no solo es ilusorio, sino contraproducente, porque encubre la raíz de nuestros problemas: una humanidad en constante disarmonía entre etnocentrismos belicosos, perpetradora de la devastación planetaria, cuyo valor supremo es el lucro sin límites.
Abstract This essay questions evolutionary or Darwinian medicine for its uncritical adherence to evolutionary theory to explain diseases, which leaves aside the very vital process that transformed an "inert planet" into a "living one" where the nascent biological order subordinated the physicochemical one to prevail. The biological order is comparable to an "infinitely diverse harmonic concert", which has created and recreated, for eons, the environments conducive to its own permanence and evolution. The arrival of homo sapiens meant the cultural order emergence, which progressively supplanted, in its effects, the biological order by causing drastic and vertiginous changes in the planetary ecosystem that silenced the evolutionary process "without time to manifest". Adaptation as an ability to overcome adverse situations is a non-sense in the "harmonic concert"; instead, it is characteristic of the cultural order that imposes inhospitable and stressful environments on humans as inescapable adaptive demands. The vital quality of the biological order is the sequential anticipation of situations of interaction with significant objects in the environment, which enables the consummation of basic vital activities, emblematic of the state of maturity of living beings. To think that evolution explains chronic diseases is not only illusory but counterproductive because it covers up the root of our problems: a humanity in constant disharmony between bellicose ethnocentrisms, perpetrator of planetary devastation, whose supreme value is profit without limits.
RESUMO
Little is known about brain aging or dementia in nonindustrialized environments that are similar to how humans lived throughout evolutionary history. This paper examines brain volume (BV) in middle and old age among two indigenous South American populations, the Tsimane and Moseten, whose lifestyles and environments diverge from those in high-income nations. With a sample of 1,165 individuals aged 40 to 94, we analyze population differences in cross-sectional rates of decline in BV with age. We also assess the relationships of BV with energy biomarkers and arterial disease and compare them against findings in industrialized contexts. The analyses test three hypotheses derived from an evolutionary model of brain health, which we call the embarrassment of riches (EOR). The model hypothesizes that food energy was positively associated with late life BV in the physically active, food-limited past, but excess body mass and adiposity are now associated with reduced BV in industrialized societies in middle and older ages. We find that the relationship of BV with both non-HDL cholesterol and body mass index is curvilinear, positive from the lowest values to 1.4 to 1.6 SDs above the mean, and negative from that value to the highest values. The more acculturated Moseten exhibit a steeper decrease in BV with age than Tsimane, but still shallower than US and European populations. Lastly, aortic arteriosclerosis is associated with lower BV. Complemented by findings from the United States and Europe, our results are consistent with the EOR model, with implications for interventions to improve brain health.
Assuntos
Envelhecimento , Sistema Cardiovascular , Humanos , Estados Unidos , Estudos Transversais , Encéfalo , América do SulRESUMO
To characterize host risk factors for infectious disease in Mesoamerican populations, we interrogated 857,481 SNPs assayed using the Affymetrix 6.0 genotyping array for signatures of natural selection in immune response genes. We applied three statistical tests to identify signatures of natural selection: locus-specific branch length (LSBL), the cross-population extended haplotype homozygosity (XP-EHH), and the integrated haplotype score (iHS). Each of the haplotype tests (XP-EHH and iHS) were paired with LSBL and significance was determined at the 1% level. For the paired analyses, we identified 95 statistically significant windows for XP-EHH/LSBL and 63 statistically significant windows for iHS/LSBL. Among our top immune response loci, we found evidence of recent directional selection associated with the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-γ) signaling pathway. These findings illustrate that Mesoamerican populations' immunity has been shaped by exposure to infectious disease. As targets of selection, these variants are likely to encode phenotypes that manifest themselves physiologically and therefore may contribute to population-level variation in immune response. Our results shed light on past selective events influencing the host response to modern diseases, both pathogenic infection as well as autoimmune disorders.
Assuntos
Doenças Transmissíveis , Genômica , Humanos , Genoma , Seleção Genética , Doenças Transmissíveis/genéticaRESUMO
Helminths include free-living and parasitic Platyhelminthes and Nematoda which infect millions of people worldwide. Some Platyhelminthes species of blood flukes (Schistosoma haematobium, Schistosoma japonicum, and Schistosoma mansoni) and liver flukes (Clonorchis sinensis and Opisthorchis viverrini) are known to be involved in human cancers. Other helminths are likely to be carcinogenic. Our main goals are to summarize the current knowledge of human cancers caused by Platyhelminthes, point out some helminth and human biomarkers identified so far, and highlight the potential contributions of phylogenetics and molecular evolution to cancer research. Human cancers caused by helminth infection include cholangiocarcinoma, colorectal hepatocellular carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and urinary bladder cancer. Chronic inflammation is proposed as a common pathway for cancer initiation and development. Furthermore, different bacteria present in gastric, colorectal, and urogenital microbiomes might be responsible for enlarging inflammatory and fibrotic responses in cancers. Studies have suggested that different biomarkers are involved in helminth infection and human cancer development; although, the detailed mechanisms remain under debate. Different helminth proteins have been studied by different approaches. However, their evolutionary relationships remain unsolved. Here, we illustrate the strengths of homology identification and function prediction of uncharacterized proteins from genome sequencing projects based on an evolutionary framework. Together, these approaches may help identifying new biomarkers for disease diagnostics and intervention measures. This work has potential applications in the field of phylomedicine (evolutionary medicine) and may contribute to parasite and cancer research.
RESUMO
Resumen Los avances tecnológicos han permitido la supervivencia de pacientes críticamente enfermos que hubieran fallecido de manera inevitable. No obstante, muchas de las medidas de este tratamiento intensivo son riesgosas y con un alto costo material y de esfuerzo humano. La medicina evolucionista es una tendencia mundial que propone que un alto número de alteraciones del paciente corresponden a respuestas de adaptación con el objetivo de la supervivencia y no requieren obligatoriamente de su normalización. En el caso del paciente críticamente enfermo, este enfoque es innovador y podría conducir a una medicina crítica orientada al reconocimiento de estas respuestas adaptativas y su modulación. Esta nueva forma de interpretar las manifestaciones de la enfermedad puede tener importantes repercusiones en su tratamiento y una utilización más racional de los recursos. La aplicación de este paradigma puede mejorar los resultados hasta ahora no óptimos, en condiciones como shock séptico, en las que medidas consideradas como lógicas o racionales han sido inefectivas. Se presenta una revisión sobre los principios de esta tendencia, evidencia que la apoya, algunas hipótesis sobre su aplicación en casos concretos y sus limitaciones.
Abstract Technological advances have allowed the survival of critically ill patients who otherwise would have inevitably died. However, many of the measures of this intensive treatment are risky and with a high material cost and human effort. Evolutionary medicine is a worldwide trend that proposes that a high number of patient alterations correspond to adaptation responses with the aim of survival and do not necessarily require their normalization. In the case of the critically ill patient, this approach is innovative and could lead to a critical medicine aimed at the recognition of these adaptive responses and their modulation. This new way of interpreting the manifestations of the disease can have important repercussions in its treatment and a more rational use of resources. The application of this paradigm can improve the results so far not optimal, in conditions such as septic shock, in which measures considered logical or rational have been ineffective. This review presents the principles of this trend, the supporting evidence, some hypotheses about its application in specific cases as well as its limitations.
Assuntos
Humanos , Terapêutica/tendências , Desenvolvimento Tecnológico/economia , Cuidados Críticos/estatística & dados numéricos , Adaptação a Desastres , Medicina/tendências , Costa RicaRESUMO
Evolutionary studies of genes that have been functionally characterized and whose variation has been associated with pathological conditions represent an opportunity to understand the genetic basis of pathologies. α2-Adrenoreceptors (ADRA2) are a class of G protein-coupled receptors that regulate several physiological processes including blood pressure, platelet aggregation, insulin secretion, lipolysis, and neurotransmitter release. This gene family has been extensively studied from a molecular/physiological perspective, yet much less is known about its evolutionary history. Accordingly, the goal of this study was to investigate the evolutionary history of α2-adrenoreceptors (ADRA2) in vertebrates. Our results show that in addition to the three well-recognized α2-adrenoreceptor genes (ADRA2A, ADRA2B and ADRA2C), we recovered a clade that corresponds to the fourth member of the α2-adrenoreceptor gene family (ADRA2D). We also recovered a clade that possesses two ADRA2 sequences found in two lamprey species. Furthermore, our results show that mammals and crocodiles are characterized by possessing three α2-adrenoreceptor genes, whereas all other vertebrate groups possess the full repertoire of α2-adrenoreceptor genes. Among vertebrates ADRA2D seems to be a dispensable gene, as it was lost two independent times during the evolutionary history of the group. Additionally, we found that most examined species possess the most common alleles described for humans; however, there are cases in which non-human mammals possess the alternative variant. Finally, transcript abundance profiles revealed that during the early evolutionary history of gnathostomes, the expression of ADRA2D in different taxonomic groups became specialized to different tissues, but in the ancestor of sarcopterygians this specialization would have been lost.
Assuntos
Jacarés e Crocodilos/genética , Evolução Molecular , Mamíferos/genética , Receptores Adrenérgicos alfa 2/genética , Animais , Sequência Conservada/genética , Funções Verossimilhança , Mamíferos/sangue , Filogenia , Polimorfismo Genético , RNA Mensageiro/genética , RNA Mensageiro/metabolismo , Sintenia/genética , Transcrição GênicaRESUMO
The Tsimane Health and Life History Project, an integrated bio-behavioral study of the human life course, is designed to test competing hypotheses of human life-history evolution. One aim is to understand the bidirectional connections between life history and social behavior in a high-fertility, kin-based context lacking amenities of modern urban life (e.g. sanitation, banks, electricity). Another aim is to understand how a high pathogen burden influences health and well-being during development and adulthood. A third aim addresses how modernization shapes human life histories and sociality. Here we outline the project's goals, history, and main findings since its inception in 2002. We reflect on the implications of current findings and highlight the need for more coordinated ethnographic and biomedical study of contemporary nonindustrial populations to address broad questions that can situate evolutionary anthropology in a key position within the social and life sciences.
Assuntos
Antropologia , Evolução Biológica , Indígenas Sul-Americanos/etnologia , Adulto , Comportamento , Bolívia/etnologia , Criança , Feminino , Humanos , Lactente , MasculinoRESUMO
The study of the evolutionary history of genes related to human disease lies at the interface of evolution and medicine. These studies provide the evolutionary context on which medical researchers should work, and are also useful in providing information to suggest further genetic experiments, especially in model species where genetic manipulations can be made. Here we studied the evolution of the ß-adrenoreceptor gene family in vertebrates with the aim of adding an evolutionary framework to the already abundant physiological information. Our results show that in addition to the three already described vertebrate ß-adrenoreceptor genes there is an additional group containing cyclostome sequences. We suggest that ß-adrenoreceptors diversified as a product of the two whole genome duplications that occurred in the ancestor of vertebrates. Gene expression patterns are in general consistent across species, suggesting that expression dynamics were established early in the evolutionary history of vertebrates, and have been maintained since then. Finally, amino acid polymorphisms that are associated to pathological conditions in humans appear to be common in non-human mammals, suggesting that the phenotypic effects of these mutations depend on epistatic interaction with other positions. The evolutionary analysis of the ß-adrenoreceptors delivers new insights about the diversity of these receptors in vertebrates, the evolution of the expression patterns and a comparative perspective regarding the polymorphisms that in humans are linked to pathological conditions.
Assuntos
Evolução Molecular , Receptores Adrenérgicos beta/genética , Vertebrados/genética , Animais , Duplicação Gênica , Genoma , Humanos , FilogeniaRESUMO
Genes related to human diseases should be natural targets for evolutionary studies, since they could provide clues regarding the genetic bases of pathologies and potential treatments. Here we studied the evolution of the reprimo gene family, a group of tumor-suppressor genes that are implicated in p53-mediated cell cycle arrest. These genes, especially the reprimo duplicate located on human chromosome 2, have been associated with epigenetic modifications correlated with transcriptional silencing and cancer progression. We demonstrate the presence of a third reprimo lineage that, together with the reprimo and reprimo-like genes, appears to have been differentially retained during the evolutionary history of vertebrates. We present evidence that these reprimo lineages originated early in vertebrate evolution and expanded as a result of the two rounds of whole genome duplications that occurred in the last common ancestor of vertebrates. The reprimo gene has been lost in birds, and the third reprimo gene lineage has been retained in only a few distantly related species, such as coelacanth and gar. Expression analyses revealed that the reprimo paralogs are mainly expressed in the nervous system. Different vertebrate lineages have retained different reprimo paralogs, and even in species that have retained multiple copies, only one of them is heavily expressed.
Assuntos
Proteínas de Ciclo Celular/genética , Evolução Molecular , Genes Supressores de Tumor , Família Multigênica , Filogenia , Vertebrados/genética , Sequência de Aminoácidos , Animais , Duplicação Gênica , Humanos , Funções Verossimilhança , Alinhamento de Sequência , Sintenia/genética , Transcrição Gênica , Proteína Supressora de Tumor p53/genética , Proteínas Supressoras de Tumor/química , Proteínas Supressoras de Tumor/genéticaRESUMO
BACKGROUND: Often considered an inevitable part of male aging, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is the most common non-life threatening disease to affect men in Western populations. We examine age-related change in prostate size and BPH risk and related serum biomarkers among the Tsimane Amerindians of the Bolivian Amazon who live a traditional lifestyle of hunting and small-scale horticulture. The Tsimane are a critical case study for understanding the etiology of BPH as they have low levels of obesity and metabolic syndrome, as well as lower levels of testosterone than age matched U.S. males, factors associated with BPH in previous research. METHODS: Ultrasounds were conducted on 348 men aged 28-89 years (median age 56 years). Testosterone, prostate specific antigen, sex hormone binding globulin, and glycosylated hemoglobin were examined in relationship to prostate size and BPH. RESULTS: Tsimane have less than half of the BPH prevalence experienced by U.S. men, and prostate volumes 62.6% smaller. While Tsimane have low levels of testosterone and subclinical levels of metabolic syndrome compared to U.S. men, Tsimane with high testosterone were more likely to experience BPH, as were those with higher glycosylated hemoglobin, suggesting targets for clinical interventions to reduce BPH. CONCLUSIONS: These results have clinical significance for the growing number of men taking testosterone supplementation; even at low levels the additional testosterone exposure could be placing these men at higher risk of BPH. Overall, these data suggest that BPH may not have been an inevitable part of male aging throughout human evolutionary history.
Assuntos
Fazendeiros , Hiperplasia Prostática/diagnóstico por imagem , Hiperplasia Prostática/epidemiologia , Adulto , Fatores Etários , Idoso , Idoso de 80 Anos ou mais , Biomarcadores/sangue , Bolívia/epidemiologia , Hemoglobinas Glicadas/metabolismo , Humanos , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Prevalência , Antígeno Prostático Específico/sangue , Globulina de Ligação a Hormônio Sexual/metabolismo , Testosterona/sangue , UltrassonografiaRESUMO
La esquizofrenia es una enfermedad que ha acompañado al hombre desde tiempos ancestrales, logrando presentar una prevalencia estable en el tiempo y geografía. Esto no se logra explicar completamente por la influencia de factores ambientales, como los planteados por la teoría del neurodesarrollo, ni tampoco por la alta carga genética asociada a esta enfermedad. Esta revisión que desde la medicina evolucionaría le atribuyen una ventaja adaptativa a la enfermedad, motivo por el cual se ha perpetuado. Partimos con la propuesta evolucionaría de Nesse y Williams, planteando que ciertos genes que causan costos, a su vez pueden traer beneficios. En ese contexto analizamos dos teorías que plantean que la esquizofrenia sería el costo que tuvimos que pagar por la adquisición de la sociabilidad por un lado, y por la adquisición del lenguaje, por otro. Estas teorías logran explicar en parte la sintomatología propia de la esquizofrenia y cómo ésta ha acompañado al hombre desde que es hombre, transformándola en la enfermedad propia de nuestra especie, significando un costo a pagar para volverse humano.
Schizophrenia is a disease that has accompanied man from ancient times, and has managed to support a stable prevalence in time and geography. This is not explained completely by the influence of environmental factors, as the ones raised by the theory of the neurodevelopment, neither by the high genetic load associated to this disease. This review tries to show the theories that through evolutionary medicine attribute an adaptative advantage to the disease, and this would be the way it has been perpetuated. We depart Nesse and Williams evolutionary theory raising that certain genes that cause costs also can bring benefits. In this context we analyze two theories, which rise that schizophrenia would be the cost that we had to pay for the acquisition of the sociableness on one hand, and or the acquisition of the language, on the other. These theories explain partly the symptomatology of the schizophrenia and how it has accompanied the human being, transforming this illness into the disease of our specie and a cost paid to become human.