Tumor as a necessity
Released in early June interview st. Petersburg Polytechnic University, with the head of the laboratory of the new functionalization of genes of the Institute of General Genetics. NI Vavilov RAS Andrei Kozlov once again brought up the theory of the evolutionary role of tumors, which he put forward in the 1970s. The theory proves that tumors are essential for the evolution of multicellular organisms.
One of Kozlov’s partners, co-author of his papers, is Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nikolai Yankovsky, scientific director of the Institute of General Genetics. He still views the theory as the only correct explanation for the origin of organs in multicellular organisms.
“No tissue forms except a tumor,” says Academician Yankovsky. This is how a multicellular organism works.
Numerous tumor starts occur in us every day, but the body eliminates these diseased cells. This process is called apoptosis – if a cell knows it’s doing something wrong, it should kill itself. And this happens a thousand times a day. At some point the cell does not kill itself, then a tumor appears.
According to researchers, tumors are mostly not fatal—they only become so when the body fails. As an example, scientists cite a goldfish with a cap on its head, which is actually a tumor. However, goldfish live with this cap all their life.
Andrey Kozlov, quoted in an interview, says that the fat organ is also tumor-like. Academician Yankovsky believes that the main thing here is to agree on terms.
“There are certain criteria for evaluating organs. And if we take the generally accepted criteria, the fatty organ cannot be called tumor-like. But the criteria will be as we agreed. According to Kozlov’s criteria, the fatty organ is like a tumor – from the point of view of his theory, this is exactly the case. Thanks to his theory, we will one day have a list of genes that we can edit so that we can prevent deadly tumors from developing. This is undoubtedly the Nobel Prize of the future,” says Yankovsky.
“Theory of everything” multicellular
Scientists interviewed by socialbites.ca reacted ambiguously to the theory proposed by Andrei Kozlov, but admitted that it was premature to position it as a unified theory of biological development.
“It is quite possible that some new tissues and organs arise initially with tumors and disruption of normal development, then later by integration of this process into ontogenesis.”
– says Konstantin Krutovsky, professor at the University of Göttingen (Germany), head of the Scientific and Educational Center for Genomic Research at the Institute of Basic Biology and Biotechnology of the Siberian Federal University. — The theory of “carcino-evo-devo” developed by Andrey Kozlov is very interesting, original and important, but it seems to me
It is wrong or premature to position it as a “unified” theory of biological development. It is possible that this is an extreme and rare case of the evolutionary formation of new tissues and organs.“,
says Krutovsky.
According to the professor, oncogenes, oncoviruses and other genetic mobile and retroelements do indeed have an important evolutionary role, as they are an important source of genetic variability necessary for selection for the creation of new tissues and organs as well as new traits.
“They can also cause tumors,” says Krutovsky. “Therefore, there is a link between cancer, tumors and the evolution of new properties, tissues and organs.”
This connection, as well as the connection in the development of tumors and the formation of one or another organ in embryogenesis, is undoubted and the head of the genome engineering laboratory at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology Pavel. Volchkov.
“But all these tumors that arise in humans are still not associated with those that form new organs,” Volchkov said. — Formation processes must take place in embryogenesis.
I am not against the theory of the evolutionary role of tumors, but the term “organogenesis” already exists, which the authors of the hypothesis associate with the tumor process. It seems to me that this is a slight distortion, ”
– says the scientist.
According to Pavel Volchkov, the sebaceous system may indeed have signs of tumors. However, they are not available in all cases.
As for the fatty organ, which the author of the hypothesis calls tumor-like, I agree that some fatty organs are manifestations of tumors. Normally, however, adipose tissue is highly functional and well-organized. But a person is still designed for the small amount of food consumed. If it eats 3-5-8 times more than the norm, the same process begins, in which we can observe that the device works at 5-40 ° C, we suddenly start turning it on at 80 ° C. It is clear that he will begin to melt and stop working,” Volchkov said.
According to him, if a person eats too much, pathological processes can occur in completely different organs, the endocrine system, and the adipose tissue itself can begin to change. Tumors may develop. However, the scientist believes it’s a big stretch to call a normally fatty organ tumor-like.
However, it is quite possible that scientists do not really have the opportunity to agree on a common terminology. Supporters of the theory of the evolutionary role of tumors believe that all tissues arose “through a tumor,” which gives them the right to call different organs tumor-like. Other scientists believe that a tumor is not something that develops daily in human organisms and is destroyed by apoptosis, but something that develops into a true visible tumor, which is not the norm anyway. Scientists will need to study further to determine the meaning of the term “tumor” and to find out what contribution tumors have to evolution.