Abstract
Applying evolutionary biology to medical problems is surprisingly new and still absent from medical as well biological teaching, despite the fact that “nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution” (T. Dobzhansky in Am. Biol. Teach. 35:125, 1973), and biology is the basis of medicine. Evolutionary medicine takes the view that contemporary diseases are related to incompatibility between the environment in which humans currently live and the conditions under which human biology evolved and genomes have been shaped by a different environment during biological evolution. Human activity has recently acutely modified the environmental conditions in which all living beings live. The main result is a spectacular increased lifespan and pronounced change in the medical landscape. The concept of evolutionary medicine applies to every disease state. From an epidemiological viewpoint, the simultaneous increased incidence in both autoimmune (type 1 diabetes, Crohn’s disease, etc.) and allergic (asthma, childhood allergy, etc.) diseases is inversely related to the drop in infectious diseases. The so-called hygiene hypothesis is now solidly established and its mechanism is well documented. It involved both a strong genetic component and a dysregulation of the immune system with a main role attributed to interleukin-10. The conflict resulting from the free availability of food and salt and the remaining fat- and salt-retaining genes is now considered as a major determinant of the rising epidemic incidence of obesity, arterial hypertension and type 2 diabetes. The so-called metabolic syndrome is a summary of these different components and represents a major goal for contemporary preventive medicine. For example, genome-wide association studies have currently identified at least nine genes which are significantly associated with type 2 diabetes. Cancer may be viewed as an accelerated form of evolution at the level of cancer cells. About one third of the hundreds of mutations which have been identified so far in cancers are subject to an evolutionary pressure with a nearly doubling of the nonsynonymous to synonymous substitutions ratio. The genome-environment relationship is a major paradigm for a biologist. It is equally important in medicine, and diseases can now be ascribed as a threshold on a norm reaction curve that depends on a given genotype.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Anonymous (2007) Light at the end of the tunnel. Nature 445:567
Bach JF (2002) The effect of infections on susceptibility to autoimmune and allergic diseases. N Engl J Med 347:911–920
Barker DJ, Winter PD, Osmond C, Margetts B, Simmonds SJ (1989) Weight in infancy and death from ischemic heart disease. Lancet 2:577–580
Bellamy R, Ruwende C, Corrah T, McAdam KP, Whittle HC, Hill AV (1998) Variations in the NRAMP1 gene and susceptibility to tuberculosis in West Africans. N Engl J Med 338:640–644
Boomsma D, Bujsjahn A, Peltonen L (2002) Classical twin studies and beyond. Nat Rev Genet 3:872–882
Coussens LM, Werb Z (2002) Inflammation and cancer. Nature 420:860–867
Cupples LA, Arruda HT, Benjamin EJ, D’Agostino RB Sr, Demissie S, DeStefano AL, Dupuis J, Falls KM, Fox CS, Gottlieb DJ, Govindaraju DR, Guo CY, Heard-Costa NL, Hwang SJ, Kathiresan S, Kiel DP, Laramie JM, Larson MG, Levy D, Liu CY, Lunetta KL, Mailman MD, Manning AK, Meigs JB, Murabito JM, Newton-Cheh C, O’Connor GT, O’Donnell CJ, Pandey M, Seshadri S, Vasan RS, Wang ZY, Wilk JB, Wolf PA, Yang Q, Atwood LD (2007) The Framingham Heart Study 100K SNP genome-wide association study resource: overview of 17 phenotype working group reports. BMC Med Genet 8(Suppl I):SI
DeWitt TJ, Scheiner SM (2004) Phenotypic plasticity. Functional and conceptual approaches. Oxford University Press, New York
Dobzhansky T (1973) Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. Am Biol Teach 35:125–129
Doughty P, Reznick DN (2004) Patterns and analysis of adaptative phenotypic plasticity in animals. In: DeWitt TJ, Scheiner SM (eds) Phenotypic plasticity. Functional and conceptual approaches. Oxford University Press, New York
Eaton SB, Konner M (1985) Paleolithic nutrition. A consideration of its nature and current implications. N Engl J Med 312:283–289
Eckel RH, Grundy SM, Zimmet PZ (2005) The metabolic syndrome. Lancet 365:1415–1428
Finkel T, Serrano M, Blasco MA (2007) The common biology of cancer and ageing. Nature 448:767–774
Flier JS (2004). Obesity wars: molecular progress confronts an expanding epidemic. Cell 116:337–350
Frayling TM, Timpson NJ, Weedon MN, Zeggini E, Freathy RM, Lindgren CM, Perry JR, Elliott KS, Lango H, Rayner NW, Shields B, Harries LW, Barrett JC, Ellard S, Groves CJ, Knight B, Patch AM, Ness AR, Ebrahim S, Lawlor DA, Ring SM, Ben-Shlomo Y, Jarvelin MR, Sovio U, Bennett AJ, Melzer D, Ferrucci L, Loos RJ, Barroso I, Wareham NJ, Karpe F, Owen KR, Cardon LR, Walker M, Hitman GA, Palmer CN, Doney AS, Morris AD, Smith GD, Hattersley AT, McCarthy MI (2007) A common variant in the FTO gene is associated with body mass index and predisposes to childhood and adult obesity. Science 316:889–892
Greaves M (2002) Cancer causation: the Darwinian downside of past success? Lancet Oncol. 3:244–251
Greenman C, Stephens P, Smith R, Dalgliesh GL, Hunter C, Bignell G, Davies H, Teague J, Butler A, Stevens C, Edkins S, O’Meara S, Vastrik I, Schmidt EE, Avis T, Barthorpe S, Bhamra G, Buck G, Choudhury B, Clements J, Cole J, Dicks E, Forbes S, Gray K, Halliday K, Harrison R, Hills K, Hinton J, Jenkinson A, Jones D, Menzies A, Mironenko T, Perry J, Raine K, Richardson D, Shepherd R, Small A, Tofts C, Varian J, Webb T, West S, Widaa S, Yates A, Cahill DP, Louis DN, Goldstraw P, Nicholson AG, Brasseur F, Looijenga L, Weber BL, Chiew YE, DeFazio A, Greaves MF, Green AR, Campbell P, Birney E, Easton DF, Chenevix-Trench G, Tan MH, Khoo SK, Teh BT, Yuen ST, Leung SY, Wooster R, Futreal PA, Stratton MR (2007) Patterns of somatic mutation in human cancer genomes. Nature 446:153–158
Haines A, Kovats RS, Campbell-Lendrum D, Corvalon C (2006) Climate change and human health: impacts, vulnerability, and mitigation. Lancet 367:2101–2109
Hales S, Woodward A (2003) Climate change will increase demands on malaria control in Africa. Lancet 363:1775
Hanahan D, Weinberg RA (2000) The hallmarks of cancer. Cell 100:57–70
Hopp MJ, Foley JA (2003) Worldwide fluctuations in dengue fever cases related to climate variability. Clim Res 25:85–94
International HapMap Consortium (2005) A haplotype map of the human genome. Nature 437:1299–1320
Jobling MA, Hurles ME, Tyler-Smith C (2004) Human evolutionary genetics. Origins, peoples and disease. Garland, New York
Junien C, Gallou-Kabani C, Vigé A, Gross M-S (2005) Epigénomique nutritionnelle du syndrome métabolique. Med Sci (Paris) 21:396–404
Le Tertre A, Lefranc A, Eilstein D, Declercq C, Medina S, Blanchard M, Chardon B, Fabre P, Filleul L, Jusot JF, Pascal L, Prouvost H, Cassadou S, Ledrans M (2006) Impact of the 2003 heatwave on all-cause mortality in 9 French cities. Epidemiology 17:75–79
Lorincz AM, Sukumai S (2006) Molecular links between obesity and breast cancer. Endocr Relat Cancer 13:279–292
MacCallum CJ (2007) Does medicine without evolution make sense? PLoS Biol 5:e112–e114
MacMichael AJ, Woodruff RE, Hales S (2006) Climate change and human health present and future risks. Lancet 367:859–869
MacMillen C, Robinson JS (2005) Developmental origins of the metabolic syndrome: prediction, plasticity, and programming. Physiol Rev 85:571–633
Meagher TR (2007) Is evolutionary biology strategic science? Evolution Jan 239–244
Medina-Ramón M, Schwartz J (2007) Temperature, temperature extremes, and mortality: a study of acclimatisation and effect modification in 50 US cities. Occup Environ Med 64:827–833. doi:10.1136/oem.2007.033175
Merlo LM, Pepper JW, Reid BJ, Maley CC (2006) Cancer as an evolutionary and ecological process. Nat Rev Cancer 6:924–935
Neel JV (1962) Diabetes mellitus: a “thrifty” genotype rendered detrimental by “progress”? Am J Hum Genet 14:353–362
Nesse RM, Williams G (1994) Why we get sick: the new science of Darwinian medicine. Times Books, New York
Patz JA, Olson SH (2005) Malaria risk and temperature: influences from global climate change and local land use practices. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103:5635–5636
Schwartz MW, Porte D Jr (2005) Diabetes, obesity, and the brain. Science 307:375–379
Silva JE (2006) Thermogenic mechanisms and their hormonal regulation. Physiol Rev 86:435–464
Stearns SC (1999) Evolution in health and disease. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Swynghedauw B (2006) Phenotypic plasticity of adult myocardium. Molecular mechanisms. J Exp Biol 209:2320–2327
Trevathan WR, Smith EO, McKenna JJ (1999) Evolutionary medicine. Oxford University Press, Oxford
van Gaal LF, Rissanen AM, Scheen AJ, Ziegler O, Rössner S, RIO-Europe Study Group (2005) Effects of the cannabinoid-1 receptor blocker rimonabant on weight reduction and cardiovascular risk factors in overweight patients: 1-year experience from the RIO-Europe study. Lancet 365:1389–1397
Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (2007) Genome-wide association study of 14,000 cases of seven common diseases and 3,000 shared controls. Nature 447:661–678
Wills-Karp M, Santeliz J, Karp CL (2001) The germless theory of allergic disease: revisiting the hygiene hypothesis. Nat Rev Immunol 1:69–75
Woltereck R (1909) Weitere experimentelle Untersuchungen über Artveränderung, spezielle über das wesen quantitativer Artunterschiede bei Saphniden. Verh Dtsch Zool Ges 19:110–172
Wright A, Hastie N (2007) Genes and common diseases. Genetic in modern medicine. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Yazdanbakhsh M, Kremaner PG, van Ree R (2002) Allergy, parasites, and the hygiene hypothesis. Science 296:490–494
Yusuf S, Reddy S, Ounpuu S, Anand S (2001) Global burden of cardiovascular diseases. Part II: variations in cardiovascular disease by specific ethnic groups and geographic regions and prevention strategies. Circulation 104:2855–2864
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Swynghedauw, B. (2008). Nothing in Medicine Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution: A Review. In: Pontarotti, P. (eds) Evolutionary Biology from Concept to Application. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-78993-2_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-78993-2_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-78992-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-78993-2
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)