The transition to modernity and chronic disease: mismatch and natural selection

Corbett, Stephen; Courtiol, Alexandre; Lummaa, Virpi; Moorad, Jacob A.; Stearns, Stephen C.

doi:10.1038/s41576-018-0012-3

Cited by 107 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 89 publications

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“…Individual‐level associations between lifespan and rate of sexual maturation may reflect either within‐population polymorphisms in antagonistic pleiotropic effects (Corbett, Courtiol, Lummaa, Moorad, & Stearns, ; Laisk et al, ) or induced phenotypic responses to womb or childhood environment (Lea, Tung, Archie, & Alberts, ; Wells, ). For instance, the risk of developing diseases related to metabolic syndrome among early‐maturing women might appear inevitable consequence of (initially adaptive) plastic response of a “thrifty phenotype” to low maternal investment in utero (Wells, ), but also result from the overlap of genomic loci associated with early menarche with genes implicated in metabolic diseases (Day et al, ; Perry et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parents of early‐maturing girls die younger

Hõrak

Valge

Fischer

et al. 2019

Evolutionary Applications

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According to the life‐history theory, rates of sexual maturation have coevolved with mortality rates so that individuals who mature faster tend to die younger. We used two data sets, providing different markers for the speed of pubertal development to test whether rates of sexual maturation of women predict the age at death of their parents. In the data set of Estonian schoolgirls born between 1936 and 1961, the rate of breast development predicted lifespan of both mothers and fathers (irrespectively of their socio‐economic position), so that parents of rapidly maturing girls died at younger age. This finding supports the view that fast maturation rates in humans have coevolved with short lifespans and that such trade‐offs can be detected as intergenerational phenotypic correlations in modern populations. Menarcheal age of participants of Estonian Biobank (born between 1925 and 1996) did not predict the age of death of their mothers; however, it did predict survival of their fathers, but only in environment where the genetic variation is exposed (families where at least one parent had tertiary education). In such families (where girls also matured 0.2–0.4 years earlier than in poorly educated families), 1‐year delay in daughter's menarche corresponded to 9% lower hazard of father's death. Heritability of menarcheal age was also highest in well‐educated families. The latter findings are consistent with the idea that genetic differences in the rate of pubertal maturation may be expressed most clearly in well‐off families because in such families, the contribution of environmental variance to total phenotypic variance in menarcheal age is smallest. Our findings suggest that with global improvement and equalization of growth conditions, reductions of environmental variation in the rate of maturation increasingly expose the genetic differences in menarcheal age to selection. Under such conditions, selection on menarcheal age has a potential to affect the evolution of lifespan.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parents of early‐maturing girls die younger

Hõrak

Valge

Fischer

et al. 2019

Evolutionary Applications

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“…Though the mortality rates decrease in the occidental part, they remain high in the more oriental regions of Europe. Similar data show that low‐income countries in the world are facing what looks like epidemics of cancers caused by the epidemiological transition (Corbett et al ., ). In Europe, a 10% (around 20% according to the CPE manifest) increase in cancer incidence is expected in the next 15 years.…”

Section: An Alarming Increase Of the Cancer Problem In Europe And Thementioning

confidence: 97%

Cancer Core Europe: A translational research infrastructure for a European mission on cancer

et al. 2019

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Cancer Core Europe is a European legal alliance consisting of seven leading cancer centres – most of them Comprehensive Cancer Centres ( CCC s) – with a single portal system to engage in various research projects with partners. Cancer Core Europe was established to create a sustainable, high‐level, shared research infrastructure platform hosting research collaborations and task forces (data sharing, clinical trials, genomics, immunotherapy, imaging, education and training, and legal and ethical issues), with a controlled expansion agenda. Translational cancer research covers the cancer research continuum from basic to preclinical to early clinical, late clinical, and outcomes research. Basic–preclinical research serves as the ‘engine’ for early clinical research by bridging the early translational research gap and is the primary and current focus of the consortium as exemplified by the launching of the Basket of Baskets trial, Europe's largest precision cancer medicine trial. Inspired by the creation of Cancer Core Europe, the prevention community established Cancer Prevention Europe, a consortium of ten cancer prevention centres aimed at supporting the complete prevention research continuum. Presently, Cancer Core Europe and Cancer Prevention Europe are integrating therapeutics and prevention strategies to address in partnership the widening cancer problem. By providing innovative approaches for cancer research, links to healthcare systems, development of quality‐assured multidisciplinary cancer care, and assessment of long‐term outcomes, the virtual infrastructure will serve as a hub to connect and interact with other centres across Europe and beyond. Together, Cancer Core Europe and Cancer Prevention Europe are prepared to function as a central engine to tackle, in collaboration with various partners, a potential ‘mission on cancer’ addressing the cancer burden.

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“…Many more people survived to older ages, and in that older group non-infectious causes of death, emerging from the selection shadow of our previously shorter lifespans, became increasingly important. Prominent among those causes are heart disease, dementia, and cancer (Corbett et al 2018).…”

Section: Cancer Biologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Frontiers in Molecular Evolutionary Medicine

Stearns

2019

J Mol Evol

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This paper surveys some of the important insights that molecular evolution has contributed to evolutionary medicine; they include phage therapy, cancer biology, helminth manipulation of the host immune system, quality control of gametes, and pathogen outbreaks. Molecular evolution has helped to revolutionize our understanding of cancer, of autoimmune disease, and of the origin, spread, and pathogenesis of emerging diseases, where it has suggested new therapies, illuminated mechanisms, and revealed historical processes: all have practical therapeutic implications. While much has been accomplished, much remains to be done. Clinical Success and FailurePhage therapy had short-lived success for a patient in Belgium who had acquired a P. aeruginosa infection after developing necrotic pressure sores during the extended hospitalization that followed bowel surgery (Jennes et al. 2017).

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The transition to modernity and chronic disease: mismatch and natural selection

Cited by 107 publications

References 89 publications

Parents of early‐maturing girls die younger

Parents of early‐maturing girls die younger

Cancer Core Europe: A translational research infrastructure for a European mission on cancer

Frontiers in Molecular Evolutionary Medicine

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