Epigenetics and PTSD

This news release from Science Daily highlights yet another epigenetic study that raises difficult questions about our understanding of natural selection. There is a long, fascinating, and in some ways sad history about epigenetics. It all began with the Australian immunologist Ted Steele.

Does the Impact of Psychological Trauma Cross Generations?

It has been assumed that these trans-generational effects reflected the impact of PTSD upon the parent-child relationship rather than a trait passed biologically from parent to child. 

However, Dr. Isabelle Mansuy and colleagues provide new evidence in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry that some aspects of the impact of trauma cross generations and are associated with epigenetic changes, i.e., the regulation of the pattern of gene expression, without changing the DNA sequence

The Australian immunologist Ted Steele, in the 1970's, was the first to strongly argue for a Lamarckian style of inheritance. I read his book long ago, Lamarck's Signature, and put a question mark over it, waiting for studies. Ted Steele was treated like a pariah by the scientific community. Not surprising, science does have its stories of the intellectually adventurous being burnt alive. A friend of mine once noted that Aussies tend towards the iconoclastic type. (Can we find an epigenetic trait for that Frank!?). Ted Steele, and that wonderfully cynical and insightful Aus philosopher, Dave Stove, are excellent examples of that iconoclastic motif. Dave Stove is one of those few precious philosophers who can call out bullshit with remarkable clarity. For example, in regard to the Selfish Gene hypothesis, one of the dumbest ways you can ever perceive genetics, Stove writes: if genes were that selfish incest would be all the rage. So FU Dawkins, I always knew you were wrong and now everyone does. But I digress ...

Epigenetics Nutshell: The concept refers to changes in gene transcription mediated by the the attachment of methyl and\or acetyl groups to the proteins which surrounds genes (chromatin, heterochromatin) and impact on the rate of gene transcription.

Ted Steele's fight cost him his career, he was even subject to disciplinary proceedings which were later thrown out on appeal. In science rocking the boat can have you tossed overboard. He crossed a sacred barrier, the Weismann Barrier. This refers to the long held view that irrespective of what happens to the body(soma), the germ line cells remain unaffected. We can now regard that as unmitigated bollocks.

There are deep and difficult questions surrounding epigenetics. This study highlights one such problem. For it is unimaginable how epigenetic changes could have the precision suggested in this article. The same problem is suggested in relation to epigenetic findings on diabetes, that if your grandparents went through a noticeable famine your diabetes risk was raised. This is quite fascinating, especially when you consider that India is the diabetes capital of the world and aborigines also have extraordinarily high rates of diabetes. How's that for an unintended consequence of being well fed! So even if we looked for gene changes the answer may be masked, what we need to also look for is epigenetic changes. These findings and many like findings have profound implications for our understanding of evolution. It is going to be another revolution and calls into question all those models of gene variation and natural selection dynamics.

BTW, a study released a few months ago suggested that congenital mental retardation can occur not through changes in the genes but in epigenetic changes.

Follow Patrick Lockerby on Scientific Blogging

Hats off to Richard Lockerby for his continued efforts to bring the science of climate change to the wider public. His recent post, Mad 2.0, illustrates the urgent need for the wider public to become much more informed about the science of climate change. Follow his posts because Patrick has an excellent grasp of the problem and the need for urgent change.

Behaviorism and Culture

A friend of mine in the USA sent me this long (30min) and fascinating video which highlights the development of a new perspective on cultural analysis that is based on ideas drawn from behavioral analysis. This is a seminal approach and will take many years if not decades to be explored. There are some interesting ideas being explored here, the talk introduces these ideas but you'll need to track down the relevant research to obtain a larger picture. Great stuff, pleasing to see that there is at least someone out there trying to develop a novel approach to understanding cultural dynamics.

Monkey Economics

Primate Economics

Longevity(Exceptional) - the genes have it

This recent press release has caused a world wide stir, with critics pointing out flaws in the analyses, though with the caveat that the identified flaws did not disprove the conclusions but raised questions that needed further investigation. In that link the researcher states his own research also identifies 150 specific markers in the exceptionally long lived. This more critical analysis though suggests the whole methodological approach is up the creek with one scientist quoted as saying the paper should not have been published because all the conclusions are suspect. The question is: Do we now know enough to enable people to realistically aim at extending their healthy lifespan? Not with studies like the above, but when the current centenarians were born people were only just becoming interested in the work of the quiet monk, Gregor Mendel, who pioneered modern genetics. Today we know so much more, and there is sufficient information to suggest it is possible to increase our lifespan and avoid illness. It is still a numbers game but we can play with the odds. First, some more of these genetic studies ... .

Diabetes Mediated by Pollution

This news release reminded me of this prior research which prompted me to think about this research. Then I found this and  this and this and this  and this which of course led to the obvious hypothesis being thus  and thus (full text available at link)all of which reminded of this recent research news wherein they still fail to recognise the obvious hypothesis. Take note from the last reference:

One striking observation is that obese persons that do not have elevated POPs are not at elevated risk of diabetes, suggesting that the POPs rather than the obesity per se is responsible for the association.

At a personal level I find this quite incredible because several years ago I wrote up a report for an environmental group wherein I argued that the compounds found in many electronic components were known to be toxic and needed to be safely disposed of instead of being put in landfill. The Queensland Environmental Protection Agency laughed at my report. Idiots, it was the obvious hypothesis back then, if only because several countries had already passed legislation to address the issue.

All that is a friggin disaster.

2- Enriched environment, stress, inhibits cancer?

In a previous post I mentioned the new research showing how an enriched environment can markedly impede the development of cancer. This research, the abstract of which is available here. (This research is concordant with research I earlier addressed, you can read it here.)The results of this current research indicate that a key variable is leptin. Leptin is a hormone released by fat cells(and other cells) that suppresses appetite. When writing up that previous post I was in a hurry so did not have time to think about it. As I driving over to a friend's place I had a petit epiphany, realising that there could very well be a linkage between the findings of this study and another post I put up on the same day that indicated regular coffee consumption is associated with cancer reduction. The typical assumption is that coffee confers this protection because it is extremely high in antioxidants, but together with the above research we can see another way in which coffee exerts its anti-cancer effects. There are some important lessons here, both in relation to the dangers of extrapolation when dealing with complex adaptive systems and the need to constantly re-evaluate our assumptions. I know, whilst thinking about this during the week I made some silly logical errors.

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre

bad science
Dr. Ben Goldacre
Fourth Estate - London, 2008
Website: Bad Science


Purpose of this text: to inform the general public about how to better understand modern biomedical news and in particular health related news. He is a British doctor and keeps his focus on the British scene but his lessons are universal and badly needed. In an earlier post  I  made some comments on the chapter in this text "Professor Patrick Holford".

This is a very important book. If you have never read a text on how to read and understand biomedical literature yet read biomedical literature you should read this text.

Professor Patrick Holford - Nutrition Nonsense

The other day I picked up this text and late last night decided to read the chapter Professor Patrick Holford because I read a book of his some years ago. Ben Goldacre is a British doctor who writes regularly for the Guardian and has taken up the challenge of addressing all the kookiness out there in relation to health advice. Good on him, high time the medical profession put some effort into attacking the multitude of spurious nutrition advice out there. I may provide a full review of "Bad Science" later but for now I will focus on this Patrick Holford character.

Coffee and Cancer

Coffee used to be regarded as a dangerous substance. The research is now clearly pointing out that coffee can confer a great many benefits. This video from Healthday puts forward the results of some surprising research showing that regular coffee consumption is protective against a range of cancers.