Emerging field of evolutionary medicine could address range of health conditions

Key takeawaysScientists in the emerging field of evolutionary medicine are applying insights from ecology and evolution to inform research on biomedicine, public health and clinical care.Lessons from evolutionary medicine could help point toward treatments and preventive health measures for a range of diseases that otherwise have been difficult to address.The approach could also be useful in the quests to overcome antibiotic-resistant bacteria and chemotherapy-resistant cancers.Evolution has helped many members of the animal kingdom adapt to overcome or resist a range of medical issues that scientists are trying to solve in humans.The giraffe, for example, has a gene that protects the heart from being damaged by blood pressure that would be high enough to ruin a human heart. Elephants possess multiple copies of a gene, one that ’s common in mammals, that makes them highly resistant to cancer. And naked mole rats seem almost immune to aging.Now, scientists in an emerging field of study are studying the evolution of those and other traits to better understand the origins of human diseases — and to pursue cures for conditions that seem intractable.In a paper published Feb. 28 in Frontiers in Science, an international team of scientists led by two UCLA evolutionary biologists lays out a research plan for “evolutionary medicine.”Evolutionary medicine applies insights from ecology and evolution to inform, direct and improve biomedical research, public health measures and cl...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news