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Has evolution found ways to prevent cancer and halt progression to old age?

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Naked mole rat: an animal that keeps cancer at bay

By Prof.Kirthi Tennakone

The high incidence of cancer alarms us. Around six percent of the human population worldwide suffers from cancer. It is the most challenging health issue to resolve and the leading cause of death, only second to cardiovascular disease. More than 10 million people die of cancer every year. In some regions, cancer deaths exceed heart disease mortality because of the availability of more successful preventive and curative measures for the latter.

With all these fears, the relief and the promise are cancers occur less frequently than expected. Many live beyond 100 years without contracting cancer but die because of other natural causes. Animals also get cancer, but there are species exceptionally resistant to it. And evolution has found solutions to suppress malignancy. Following them would be a hopeful avenue to prevent and cure this dreadful malady.

DNA damage, the primary cause of cancer is also a factor that induces our progression to old age. Evolution seems to have found clues to address both problems in one stroke.

Cause of cancer

Nearly 40 trillion cells of different kinds constitute our bodies. All of them carry the same genetic material (DNA) unique to the individual but some express only a portion of the encoded genetic information. Cells divide constantly to produce new cells for growth and replace those that naturally die. Each day, several trillion cells divide, replicating the DNA, and copying the mode of genetic expression. The replication, prone to random error, may not be exact, sometimes leading to mutations. Cancer is caused by mutant cells with altered genetic expression. Even one such mutant cell could cause the disease because it can divide and multiply. According to the above scenario, multicellular organisms are inherently subjected to the threat of cancer. Environmental influences such as pollutants and radiation could indeed induce malignancy in normal cells. Even if these external triggers are eliminated, cancer occurs because of molecular accidents in the process of cell division. Most of the time, someone getting cancer is not the fault of an external cause or a habit. Of course, this wouldn’t mean that the prevalence of cancer is not increased by external influences and habits. Exposure to mutagenic chemicals, radiation and many habits notably; chewing betels, alcohol and smoking has been proven to increase the risk of cancer.

Multicellular life

Life on Earth originated about 4 billion years ago. The primitive forms of life were self-replicating molecules created in prebiotic oceans via a yet unknown process. Fossil evidence suggests single-cell (unicellular) microbes appeared 3.7 billion years ago. They acquired more and more capabilities via several steps of evolution and finally gained a propensity to agglomerate into colonies – macroscopic structures or blobs made up of the same kind of cells.

The pivotal epoch in biological evolution was the period beginning about 600 million years ago when multicellular organisms with colonies of specialised cells emerged. Cells in all the colonies contain the same DNA but specialised by closing the expression of some coded information and manifesting selected genes. This mechanism provided animals and plants with organs cooperatively interacting with each other for the benefit of the organism. The division of biochemical and physical functions between different organs was an unprecedented adaptive advantage – multicellular life diversified, dominating the earth. The strategy is analogous to the division of labor as society advances. Primitive humans, although they liked to segregate, each undertook all essential tasks such as gathering food, building shelter and making tools. Later, they abandoned some tasks and specialized. There were farmers, carpenters, smiths and physicians; cooperatively working together for mutual benefit.

The fact that multicellular organisms evolved from a unicellular microbe remains latent in their developmental process. All animals and plants begin their lives as single cells that divide, differentiate and expand spatially according to a plan written in the genetic code. Billions of years of evolution have perfected the scheme. Yet, multicellular life encountered three inevitable biological hurdles; infection, carcinogenesis and aging, leading to death.

Microbes (mostly unicellular) invade multicellular organisms, causing disease. Mutations introduced during DNA replication or due to external influences such as chemicals in the environment or radiation cause cancer. Irreversible chemical changes in the body lead to aging and eventual death.

Evolution attempts to find solutions to every problem confronting life. The immune system fights invading microbes to prevent infection, a similar mechanism eliminates mutated cells causing cancer and repair processes prolong life.

Peto’s paradox

Every cell in the body of an animal has a non-zero probability of giving birth to a carcinogenic daughter cell as a random uncontrollable event during cell division and proliferate developing tumors. Therefore, larger- bodied animals carrying a greater number of cells should be more susceptible to cancer and very large animals would go extinct because of carcinogenesis.

In 1776, the English epidemiologist and statistician Richard Peto pointed out among animals there is no correlation between body size and incidence of cancer. The absence of the expected relationship between body size and the incidence of cancer is referred to as Peto’s paradox.

Elephants and humans have similar life spans, but the former are built out of nearly 100 times more cells than the latter. If the risk of cancer relates to cell content, the prevalence of the condition in elephants would be so high that almost every one of them will prematurely die of cancer. However, elephants are known to be highly resistant to cancer, with an incidence estimated to be five times lower compared to humans. Whales are thousands of times bulkier than humans and known to live 200 years or more. These gigantic animals live so long because they have acquired an exceptional resistance to cancer. A few dinosaur fossils indicative of bone malignancy have been discovered. Undoubtedly, cancer in these reptiles was very rare. Otherwise, they could not live long enough to reach extraordinary sizes and dominate the earth for 160 million years.

The fact that big made individuals in the same species are more likely to have cancer than small made indicates the Peto’s paradox is evolutionary in origin.

How do these giant animals resist cancer? Elephants have 20 copies of the gene named T53, whereas humans and most mammals have one. The gene T53 gives instructions to synthesize a protein P53, which acts as a tumor suppressor facilitating the repair of damaged DNA. Whales are believed to adopt a similar technique to eliminate malignant cells.

Gigantism favors animals to repel predators and easily feed by roaming around. However, a large enough number of these animals cannot grow to massive sizes and reach reproductive age, without suppressing carcinogenesis. Small animals reach maturity early and have shorter life spans and cancer would not be a threat to the survival of the species.

Naked mole rat: an animal that keeps cancer at bay

The naked mole rat is one of the most fascinating animals we have on this planet. A subterranean mammal about the size of a domestic mouse and distantly related to it. Lives in arid regions of East Africa, borrowing kilometers – long tunnels 1-2 meters below the ground. A strict vegetarian feeds on roots and tubers and never drinks water. Their bodies are pinkish with sparingly distributed hair, accounting for the name they earned. Protruding incisor teeth help it to dig tunnels even in hardened dry soil. The animal is virtually blind and senses the environment mainly by the tactile facility of its hair. Mole rats are social animals governed by a queen who associates one or two princely mates, reproduces and supervises a colony of about three hundred members, giving vocal commands. All other females and males are sexually inactive workers who dig tunnels, take care of young and serve the royalty. If the queen dies, females fight to the death and one who succeeds in securing the ‘throne’ becomes sexually active.

A mole rat lives more than 40 years, showing no apparent signs of physiological aging. The queen lives longer and continues to reproduce. Related animals of similar size live only 2-3 years. Mole rats are resistant to infections and tolerate very low levels of oxygen without asphyxiation. And most importantly keep cancer at bay – no evidence of cancer in thousands of animals examined, except one or two zoo animals. They die of tunnel accidents or snake attacks when they reach heavily guarded tunnel vents.

Current research has revealed mole rats possess tumor suppressing genes. They give instructions to repair damaged DNA and produce agents that inhibit tumor growth. Perhaps, the same genes effectively suppress ageing. One of the main causes of human and animal aging is genomic instability, the failure to repair DNA deteriorating in replication or due to chemical influences. These are also the primary biomolecular events responsible for cellular carcinogenesis.

Recently, longevity genes of mole rats have been successfully transferred to mice. Amazingly, an increase in life span and a betterment of health were observed. In the future, similar procedures may rejuvenate youth in humans! After all, the effort of the alchemists of antiquity to find an elixir of immortality may not be entirely absurd.

Unprecedented healthy longevity of mole rats is a lesson to humans.

We humans live in an elusive atmosphere of a brightly lit carnival, do everything possible for pleasure, curiosity and economic advantage, but have failed to resolve imminently crucial issues, good health free of cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and rapid aging. The naked mole rat living in dark ill – ventilated narrow tunnels beneath the ground has solved these problems. Humans need to look at the workings of animals more closely and preserve their habitats.

The author can be reached via email: ktenna@yahoo.co.uk



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Features

USAID and NGOS under siege

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A file photo of the USAID signage being removed in Washington

by Jehan Perera

The virtually overnight  suspension of the U.S. government’s multibillion dollar foreign aid programme channeled through USAID has been headline news in the U.S. and in other parts of the world where this aid has been very important.  In the U.S. itself the suspension of USAID programmes has been accompanied by large scale loss of jobs in the aid sector without due notice.  In areas of the world where U.S. aid was playing an important role, such as in mitigating conditions of famine or war, the impact is life threatening to large numbers of hapless people.  In Sri Lanka, however, the suspension of U.S. aid has made the headlines for an entirely different reason.

U.S. government authorities have been asserting that the reason for the suspension of the foreign aid programme is due to various reasons, including inefficiency and misuse that goes against the present government’s policy and is not in the U.S. national interest.  This has enabled politicians in Sri Lanka who played leading roles in previous governments, but are now under investigation for misdeeds associated with their periods of governance, to divert attention from themselves.  These former leaders of government are alleging that they were forced out of office prematurely due to the machination of NGOs that had been funded by USAID and not because of the misgovernance and corruption they were accused of.

 In the early months of 2022, hundreds of thousands of people poured out onto the streets of Sri Lanka in  all parts of the country demanding the exit of the then government.  The Aragalaya protests became an unstoppable movement due the unprecedented economic hardships that the general population was being subjected to at that time.  The protestors believed that those in the government had stolen the country’s wealth.  The onset of economic bankruptcy meant that the government did not have foreign exchange (dollars) to pay for essential imports, including fuel, food and medicine.  People died of exhaustion after waiting hours and even days in queues for petrol and in hospitals due to lack of medicine.

PROBING NGOS 

There have been demands by some of the former government leaders who are currently under investigation that USAID funding to Sri Lanka should be probed.  The new NPP government has responded to this demand by delegating the task to the government’s National NGO Secretariat.  This is the state institution that is tasked with collecting information from the NGOs registered with it about their quantum and sources of funding and what they do with it for the betterment of the people.  Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala has said he would deal with allegations over USAID funding in Sri Lanka, and for that he had sought a report from the NGO Secretariat which is operating under his Ministry.

 Most donor agencies operating in Sri Lanka, including USAID, have rigorous processes which they follow in disbursing funds to NGOs.   Usually, the donor agency will issue a call for proposals which specify their areas of interest.  NGOs have to compete to obtain these funds, stating what they will do with it in considerable detail, and the impact it will have.  Once the grant is awarded, the NGOs are required to submit regular reports of work they have done.  The donor agencies generally insist that reputed audit firms, preferably with international reputations, perform regular annual or even six-monthly audits of funds provided.  They may even send independent external monitors to evaluate the impact of the projects they have supported.

 The value of work done by NGOs is that they often take on unpopular and difficult tasks that do not have mass appeal but are essential for a more just and inclusive society.  Mahatma Gandhi who started the Sarvodaya (meaning, the wellbeing of all) Movement in India was inspired by the English philosopher John Ruskin who wrote in 1860 that a good society was one that would care for the very last member in it.   The ideal that many NGOs strive for, whether in child care, sanitation, economic  development or peacebuilding is that everyone is included and no one is excluded from society’s protection, in which the government necessarily plays a lead role.

 SELF-INTEREST

 Ironically, those who now demand that USAID funds and those organisations that obtained such funds be investigated were themselves in government when USAID was providing such funds.  The National NGO Secretariat was in existence doing its work  of monitoring the activities of NGOs then.  Donor agencies, such as USAID, have stringent policies that prevent funds they provide being used for partisan political purposes.  This accounts for the fact that when NGOs invite politicians to attend their events, they make it a point to invite those from both the government and opposition, so that their work is not seen as being narrowly politically partisan.

 The present situation is a very difficult one for NGOs in Sri Lanka and worldwide.  USAID was the biggest donor agency by far, and the sudden suspension of its funds has meant that many NGOs have had to retrench staff, stop much of their work and some have even closed down.  It appears that the international world order is becoming more openly based on self-interest, where national interests take precedence over global interests, and the interests of the wealthy segments of society take precedence over the interests of the people in general.  This is not a healthy situation for human beings or for civilisation as the founders of the world religions knew with their consistent message that the interests of others, of the neighbour, of all living beings be prioritised.

 In 1968, when the liberal ideas of universal rights were more dominant in the international system, Garrett Hardin, an evolutionary biologist, wrote a paper called “The Tragedy of the Commons”.  Hardin used an example of sheep grazing land when describing the adverse effects of overpopulation. He referred to a situation where individuals, acting in their own self-interest, overexploit a shared resource, like a pasture or fishery, leading to its depletion and eventual destruction, even though it is detrimental to everyone in the long run; essentially, the freedom to use a common resource without regulation can lead to its ruin for all users.   The world appears to be heading in that direction.  In these circumstances, the work of  those, who seek the wellbeing of all, needs to be strengthened and not undermined.

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Dealing with sexual-and gender-based violence in universities

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Out of the Shadows:

By Nicola Perera

Despite policy interventions at the University Grants Commission (UGC), university, and faculty levels, sexual- and gender-based violence (SGBV) is so entrenched in the system that victim-survivors seeking justice are more likely to experience concerted pushback than the empathetic solidarity of their peers. Colleagues and friends will often close ranks, rallying to protect the accused under misguided notions of safeguarding the reputation of, not merely the assumed perpetrator, but the institution. While gender and sexual inequalities, inflected by class, ethnicity, religion, region, and other characteristics, shape the identities of the perpetrator and victim and the situation of abuse, the hyper-hierarchised nature of the university space itself enables and conceals such violence. It’s also important to note that women are not the exclusive victims of violence; boys and men are caught in violent dynamics, too.

Similar to intimate partner violence in the private confines of home and family, violence attributed to the sex and gender of abusers and victims in our universities goes heavily underreported. The numerous power imbalances structuring the university – between staff and students; academic staff versus non-academic staff; senior academic professionals as opposed to junior academics; or, senior students in contrast to younger students – also prevent survivors from seeking redress for fear of professional and personal repercussions. Research by the UGC in 2015 in collaboration with the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) and CARE International Sri Lanka, and more recently with UNICEF in 2021, revealed discomfiting truths about the university as places of work and education. In naming oneself as a survivor-victim, even within whatever degree of confidentiality that current grievance mechanisms offer, the individual may also represent (to some members of the university community, if not to the establishment itself) a threat to the system.

Conversely, an accused is liable to not just disciplinary action by their university-employer, but to criminal prosecution by the state. Via the Penal Code, the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act (2005), etc., the law recognises SGBV as an offence that can take place across many contexts in the private and public spheres. (The criminalisation of SGBV is in line with state commitments to ensuring the existence, safety, and dignity of women and girls under a host of international agreements, such as the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Vienna Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the Sustainable Development Goals, International Labour Organisation conventions regarding non-discrimination in employment, etc.). Specific to the university, the so-called anti-ragging act (the Prohibition of Ragging and Other Forms of Violence in Education Institutes Act of 1998, in addition to UGC circular no. 919 of 2010, etc.) deems SGBV as a punishable offence. The rag is one site where SGBV often finds fluent articulation, but it is hardly the only one: this is not a problem with just our students.

As the apex body governing higher education in the country, the UGC has not remained insensible to the fact that SGBV harms the lives, rights, and work of students, staff, (and other parties) in university spaces. The Centre for Gender Equity/Equality sits at the UGC level, along with gender cells/committees in individual universities. Universities and faculties have elaborated their own policies and bylaws to address sexual- or gender-based harassment and sexual violence. Although variously articulated, these policies touch on issues of consent; discrimination against a person, or creation of a hostile environment, on the basis of their gender or sexuality; the spectrum of actions that may constitute harassment/violence (including through the use of technology); coerced or voluntary sexual favours as a quid-pro-quo for academic or professional benefits; procedures for making and investigating SGBV complaints; protection of witnesses to an investigation; the irrelevance of the complainant’s sexual history to the complaint at hand. And here begins the inevitable tale of distance between policy, practice, and effect.

Different faculties of the same university may or may not include SGBV awareness/ training in the annual orientation for new students. The faculty’s SGBV policy may or may not appear in all three languages and Braille in student handbooks. Staff Development Centres training new recruits in outcome-based education and intended learning outcomes may or may not look at (or even realise) the politics of education, nor include an SGBV component in its Human Resources modules. Universities may or may not dedicate increasingly stretched resources to training workshops on SGBV for staff, or cover everyone from academics, to administrative staff, to the marshals, to maintenance staff, to hostel wardens.

Workshops may in any case only draw a core of participants, mostly young, mostly women. Instead, groups of male academics (aided sometimes by women colleagues) will actively organise against any gender policy which they construe as a personal affront to their professional stature. Instead, the outspoken women academic is painted as a troublemaker. Existing policy fails to address such discourse, and other normalised microaggressions and subtle harassment which create a difficult environment for gender and sexual minorities. In fact, the implementation of gender policy at all may rest on the critical presence of an individual (inevitably a woman) in a position of power. Gender equality in the university at any point appears to rest on the convictions and labour of a handful of (mostly women) staff or officials.

The effect is the tediously heteropatriarchal spaces that staff and students inhabit, spaces which whether we acknowledge them as such or not, are imbued with the potential, the threat of violence for those on the margins. The effect, as Ramya Kumar writing earlier in this column states, is the inability of our LGBTQI students and staff to be their authentic selves, except to a few confidantes. Since the absence/rarity of SGBV complaints is no evidence that the phenomenon does not exist, perhaps a truer indication of how gender-sensitised our institutions and personnel are, comes back again to the reception of such complaints. Thus, a woman accuser is frequently portrayed as the archetypal scorned woman: abuse is rewritten not just as consent, but a premeditated transaction of sexual relations in exchange for better grades, a secured promotion, and so on. A situation of abuse becomes inscribed as one of seduction, where the accuser basically changes their tune and cries harassment or rape when the expected gains fail to materialise. Especially with the global backlash to MeToo, society is preoccupied with the ‘false accusation,’ even though there is plenty of evidence that few incidents of SGBV are reported, and fewer still are successfully prosecuted. These misogynist tropes of women and women’s sexuality matter in relation to SGBV in university, because Faculty Boards, investigative committees, Senates, and Councils will be as equally susceptible to them as any citizen or juror in a court of law. They matter in placing the burden of documenting abuse/harassment as it takes place on the victim-survivor, to accumulate evidence that will pass muster before a ‘neutral,’ ‘objective’ observer.

At the end of the day, when appointments to gender committees may be handpicked to not rock the boat, or any university Council may dismiss a proven case of SGBV on a technicality, the strongest policies, the most robust mechanisms and procedures are rendered ineffective, unless those who hold power in everyday dealings with students and persons in subordinate positions at the university also change.

(Nicola Perera teaches English as a second language at the University of Colombo.)

Kuppi is a politics and pedagogy happening on the margins of the lecture hall that parodies, subverts, and simultaneously reaffirms social hierarchies.

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4th Feb. celebrations…with Mirage in the scene

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Mirage: Singing the National Anthem…in the Seychelles (L) / A proud moment for Mirage (R)

There were celebrations everywhere, connected with our 77th Independence Day, and in the Seychelles, too, it was a special happening.

Perhaps, it was also the very first occasion where the group Mirage found themselves in the spotlight, at an Independence Day event, and singing the National Anthem, as well.

It all happened on Tuesday, 4th February, in Silhouette Island, in the Seychelles.

Sri Lankans, plus the locals, joined in the celebrations, which included the hoisting of the National Flag, by the General Manager of the Hilton Seychelles Labriz Resort & Spa, Marc Schumacher, the singing of the National Anthem, and the usual Sri Lankan delicacies, connected with such special occasions.

The National Anthem, led by Mirage, was sung with enthusiasm, and pride, by the crowd present, waving the National Flag.

Hoisting of the National Flag (L) / General Manager of the Hilton Seychelles Labriz Resort & Spa (R)

Mirage also did the Valentine’s Day scene, on 14th February, at the Labriz Lounge.

The group has turned out to be a favourite with the folks in the Seychelles. and the management at the Lo Brizan restaurant and pub, where the group performs six nights a week, is keen for the band to return, in December, for another stint at Lo Brizan.

This is the group’s second visit to the Seychelles and they are now due home on the 19th of this month.

They have already got a big assignment on the cards, in Colombo, where they would be seen in action at ‘Legends of Ceylon,’ scheduled for 19th March, doing the needful for some of the legends in the local music scene – Joey Lewis, Dalrene, Manilal, Gefforey Fernando, Mignonne and Sohan.

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