ISTOCK, THEDAFKISHWhile granting human species some advantages over our primate cousins, recent genomic adaptations appear to have come at a cost. Research published last week (May 23) in Cell Systems proposes that an evolutionary tradeoff, advantageous in early life, contributes to Alzheimer’s and possibly other aging-related diseases.
“I find the idea that genes that have been involved in the development of the human brain and in making the human brain different from the brains of great apes might also be genes that have the byproduct of raising the risk of Alzheimer’s is one of those ironic twists that seem to be pretty common in evolutionary biology,” says evolutionary biologist Stephen Stearns of Yale University who was not involved in this research.
In 1957, evolutionary biologist George Williams proposed a theory: adaptations that made species more fit in the early years of life likely made them more vulnerable to diseases in the post-reproductive years. However, there has been little research to support his theory.
Han Liang of the University of Texas MD Anderson ...
