Epidemics as an adaptive driving force determining lifespan setpoints

Lidsky, Peter V.; Andino, Raul

doi:10.1073/pnas.1920988117

Cited by 13 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 67 publications

(100 reference statements)

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“…Presumably, phenoptosis, by reducing the futile food consumption by elderly or stressed worms leads to adaptive benefits for the colony. This concept is also fully consistent with the recently published results of mathematical modeling [8]. The authors demonstrated that in a population of short-lived individuals, the spread of infection is limited, and the pathogen clearance is more efficient than in population in which members live longer.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Innate Immunity as an Executor of the Programmed Death of Individual Organisms for the Benefit of the Entire Population

Lyamzaev

Mulkidjanian

2021

IJMS

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In humans, over-activation of innate immunity in response to viral or bacterial infections often causes severe illness and death. Furthermore, similar mechanisms related to innate immunity can cause pathogenesis and death in sepsis, massive trauma (including surgery and burns), ischemia/reperfusion, some toxic lesions, and viral infections including COVID-19. Based on the reviewed observations, we suggest that such severe outcomes may be manifestations of a controlled suicidal strategy protecting the entire population from the spread of pathogens and from dangerous pathologies rather than an aberrant hyperstimulation of defense responses. We argue that innate immunity may be involved in the implementation of an altruistic programmed death of an organism aimed at increasing the well-being of the whole community. We discuss possible ways to suppress this atavistic program by interfering with innate immunity and suggest that combating this program should be a major goal of future medicine.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Innate Immunity as an Executor of the Programmed Death of Individual Organisms for the Benefit of the Entire Population

Lyamzaev

Mulkidjanian

2021

IJMS

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“…More generally, species lifespans are likely in uenced by pathogen interactions. Populations of species with short lifespans are able to clear pathogens faster, and being short-lived decreases the probability of crossing the species barrier, which typically requires major adaptations to emerge within the rst infected novel host to mediate e cient transmission (29).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Host Age Structure Defines Interactions with Pathogens: Grandparent Effect under Collaboration and Virulent Mutualism under Competition

Portner

Rong

Ramirez

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Background: Symbiotic relationships are ubiquitous in the biosphere. Inter-species symbiosis is impacted by intra-specific distinctions, in particular, those defined by the age structure of a population. Older individuals compete with younger individuals for resources despite being less likely to reproduce, diminishing the fitness of the population. Conversely, however, older individuals can support the reproduction of younger individuals, increasing the population fitness. Parasitic relationships are commonly age structured, typically, more adversely affecting older hosts.Results: We employ mathematical modeling to explore the differential effects of collaborative or competitive host age structures on host-parasite relationships. A classical epidemiological compartment model is constructed with three disease states: susceptible, infected, and recovered. Each of these three states is partitioned into two compartments representing young, potentially reproductive, and old, post-reproductive, hosts, yielding 6 compartments in total. In order to describe competition and collaboration between old and young compartments, we model the reproductive success to depend on the fraction of young individuals in the population. Collaborative populations with relatively greater numbers of post-reproductive hosts enjoy greater reproductive success whereas in purely competitive populations, increase of the post-reproductive subpopulation reduces reproductive success. However, in competitive populations, virulent pathogens preferentially targeting old individuals can increase the population fitness.Conclusions: We demonstrate that, in collaborative host populations, pathogens strictly impacting older, post-reproductive individuals can reduce population fitness even more than pathogens that directly impact younger, potentially reproductive individuals. In purely competitive populations, the reverse is observed, and we demonstrate that endemic, virulent pathogens can oxymoronically form a mutualistic relationship with the host, increasing the fitness of the host population. Applications to endangered species conservation and invasive species containment are discussed.

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“…The latter even managed to experimentally test his "virogenetic" theory on rodents during his imprisonment in GULAG [34]. Moreover, the infectious burden is one of the most important factors that determine the species-specific lifespan on the evolutionary scale [35]. From the practical point of view, it is important to note that virus-mediated oncolysis can be considered as a side effect defined by the features of cancer cells, e.g.…”

Section: Diversity Of Viruses As the Basis For The Development Of New Ovsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oncolytic Viruses in Tumor Therapy: The Russian Perspective

Nm¹,

Pestov²,

Jm³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The idea of using the lytic power of viruses against the malignant cells has been entertained for many decades. However, oncolytic viruses (OV) gained broad attention as an emerging anti-cancer therapy only recently with the successful implementation of the oncolytic herpesvirus to treat advanced melanoma. OVs offer an attractive therapeutic combination of tumor-specific cell lysis together with immune stimulation, yet the latter effect is less well studied. Nevertheless, OVs can be envisaged as potential in situ tumor vaccines. The therapeutic potential of OVs can be instigated further by using the molecular biological and biotechnological tools to modify the existing viruses for their optimal tumor selectivity and enhanced immune stimulation. Furthermore, OVs can be readily combined with other therapeutic agents to increase the efficacy of the existing therapeutic schemes. In this review, we discuss biotechnological advances in the development of therapeutic applications of OVs in Russia. Particular emphasis is made on the OV-mediated treatment of glioblastoma. In addition, we highlight the challenges of oncolytic virotherapy, and describe the strategies to optimize current approaches to improve clinical outcomes.

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Epidemics as an adaptive driving force determining lifespan setpoints

Cited by 13 publications

References 67 publications

Innate Immunity as an Executor of the Programmed Death of Individual Organisms for the Benefit of the Entire Population

Innate Immunity as an Executor of the Programmed Death of Individual Organisms for the Benefit of the Entire Population

Host Age Structure Defines Interactions with Pathogens: Grandparent Effect under Collaboration and Virulent Mutualism under Competition

Oncolytic Viruses in Tumor Therapy: The Russian Perspective

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