4 ms·
> (tumor cells often use anaerobic glycolysis to make energy) More generally, human cancers cells often seem like they've rolled-back to an earlier, atavistic
by Terr_ 6mo ago
> (tumor cells often use anaerobic glycolysis to make energy)
More generally, human cancers cells often seem like they've rolled-back to an earlier, atavistic set of behaviors.
I wonder if that's a "direction" of random mutations which is less-likely to be attacked by the immune system, because it leads to things that are less-alien because they were normal at one point. (Or may still be normal in limited contexts.)
Ex:
> The hallmarks of cancer are not the acquisition of novel behaviors due to genomic mutation but rather the re-deployment of ancient, unicellular programs that support survival of the cell at the expense of the host and break the contract of cooperation required for multicellular life.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S007961072100095X https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00796...
- 0cf8612b2e1e 6mo agoI assumed this was more that the robust system survives. Oxidative phosphorylation is complicated, requiring many participating proteins in the pathway. If any of them are broken, that is it. Glycolysis is comparatively simple more likely to survive random mutation. Any cells which break glycolysis will die off.
- rolph 6mo agoOxygen-Starved Tumor Cells Have Survival Advantage That Promotes Cancer Spread[2019] https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/2019/11/oxygen-starved-tumor-cells-have-survival-advantage-that-promotes-cancer-spread https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/...
- WalterBright 6mo agoCheck out the book "The Red Queen". The author points out that even chromosomes fight for survival at the expense of other chromosomes and the body. X chromosomes try to destroy the Y chromosome, for example. https://www.amazon.com/Red-Queen-Evolution-Human-Nature/dp/0060556579/ https://www.amazon.com/Red-Queen-Evolution-Human-Nature/dp/0... This is one of the most fascinating books I've ever read.
- tyre 6mo agoRelatedly, the book Vagina Obscura talks about women’s anatomy as a battle between the baby (wants as many resources as possible) and the mother (doesn’t want to die from what is, essentially, a parasite.) Fascinating mental shift to explain things like the menstrual cycle (why would we want an environment that can be fully shed every month? Isn’t that crazy expensive?)
- Terr_ 6mo agoAn online essay with a similar theme: https://aeon.co/essays/why-pregnancy-is-a-biological-war-between-mother-and-baby https://aeon.co/essays/why-pregnancy-is-a-biological-war-bet...
- lukan 6mo ago"why would we want an environment that can be fully shed every month? Isn’t that crazy expensive?" Any ideas how to raise babies more efficent? Evolution does not optimize for the individual, but the species.
- WalterBright 6mo agoEvolution does not optimize for anything. If the organism propagates, it may propagate again. But there is no goal. As the RQ shows, this process often leads to a dead end. Such as a short term success for cancer, but no long term success. Deadly infections lose their deadliness over time, as killing the host does not lead to propagation. Evolution often falls into a local optima, which will inevitably lead to extinction.
- Veserv 6mo agoDeadly diseases losing their deadliness over time is possible, but hardly guaranteed even at the species/population level. Rabies has effectively a 100% fatality rate in host species. Smallpox, which is human-specific with no animal reservoir so must have been spread consistently and entirely within humans, had a fatality rate on the order of 10-30% even after thousands of years of co-evolution.