Chen H, Li C, Zhou Z, Liang H.
Fast-Evolving Human-Specific Neural Enhancers Are Associated with Aging-Related Diseases.
Cell Syst. 2018 May 23;6(5):604-611.e4.
PubMed.
I just read through this interesting paper and I am impressed by the data supporting George Williams’ antagonistic pleiotropic theory of human evolution, which proposes that adaptive evolutionary changes that protect/facilitate reproduction early in life will also enhance aging-related changes. It is interesting that the neuronal stem cell-expressed enhancers and neuron-expressed enhancers (noncoding regulatory elements) showed the fastest relative evolutionary rate on the B4 branch of the primate evolutionary tree, which reflects human-specific evolution. It is also interesting that these human-specific enhancers activated in nervous tissues (hEANTs) seem to be associated with (or near genes associated with) aging-related diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, and osteoporosis.
The findings raise some interesting questions:
Does the fact that the age of puberty is earlier now than it was 20–50 years ago, suggest that aging-related changes are also accelerated, even though the lifespan has increased?
Nonhuman primates (NHPs), e.g., chimpanzees, orangutans, rhesus macaques, African green monkeys (including vervets), squirrel monkeys, marmosets, and tamarins all develop amyloid-β deposits—and in many cases, both as plaques and vascular amyloid. There is also some evidence for cognitive decline with aging in at least in some of these animals. Tau pathology is less consistent but has been shown in some NHPs (naturally or induced with environmental toxins). However, most scientists view NHPs with AD pathology as “models of early AD.” Could it be possible that these animals do not develop full-blown AD because they do not have the same evolutionarily-derived enhancers?
It is interesting that the hEANTs are associated with cancers, but do they only associate with cancers of the nervous system or with cancers of the blood and peripheral organs, such as liver, kidney, etc.? There is considerable interest in whether cancer and AD share any common mechanisms.
Comments
Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School
I just read through this interesting paper and I am impressed by the data supporting George Williams’ antagonistic pleiotropic theory of human evolution, which proposes that adaptive evolutionary changes that protect/facilitate reproduction early in life will also enhance aging-related changes. It is interesting that the neuronal stem cell-expressed enhancers and neuron-expressed enhancers (noncoding regulatory elements) showed the fastest relative evolutionary rate on the B4 branch of the primate evolutionary tree, which reflects human-specific evolution. It is also interesting that these human-specific enhancers activated in nervous tissues (hEANTs) seem to be associated with (or near genes associated with) aging-related diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, and osteoporosis.
The findings raise some interesting questions:
- Does the fact that the age of puberty is earlier now than it was 20–50 years ago, suggest that aging-related changes are also accelerated, even though the lifespan has increased?
- Nonhuman primates (NHPs), e.g., chimpanzees, orangutans, rhesus macaques, African green monkeys (including vervets), squirrel monkeys, marmosets, and tamarins all develop amyloid-β deposits—and in many cases, both as plaques and vascular amyloid. There is also some evidence for cognitive decline with aging in at least in some of these animals. Tau pathology is less consistent but has been shown in some NHPs (naturally or induced with environmental toxins). However, most scientists view NHPs with AD pathology as “models of early AD.” Could it be possible that these animals do not develop full-blown AD because they do not have the same evolutionarily-derived enhancers?
- It is interesting that the hEANTs are associated with cancers, but do they only associate with cancers of the nervous system or with cancers of the blood and peripheral organs, such as liver, kidney, etc.? There is considerable interest in whether cancer and AD share any common mechanisms.
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