Hunter‐gatherers and human evolution

Although few hunter‐gatherers or foragers exist today, they are well documented in the ethnographic record. Anthropologists have been eager to study them since they assumed foragers represented a lifestyle that existed everywhere before 10,000 years ago and characterized our ancestors into some ill‐defined but remote past. In the past few decades, that assumption has been challenged on several grounds. Ethnographically described foragers may be a biased sample that only continued to exist because they occupied marginal habitats less coveted by agricultural people. 3 In addition, many foragers have been greatly influenced by their association with more powerful agricultural societies. 4 It has even been suggested that Holocene foragers represent a new niche that appeared only with the climatic changes and faunal depletion at the end of the last major glaciation. 5 Despite these issues, the ethnographic record of foragers provides the only direct observations of human behavior in the absence of agriculture, and as such is invaluable for testing hypotheses about human behavioral evolution. 6 .     

Anti‐inflammaging effects of human alpha‐1 antitrypsin

Inflammaging plays an important role in most age‐related diseases. However, the mechanism of inflammaging is largely unknown, and therapeutic control of inflammaging is challenging. Human alpha‐1 antitrypsin (hAAT) has immune‐regulatory, anti‐inflammatory, and cytoprotective properties as demonstrated in several disease models including type 1 diabetes, arthritis, lupus, osteoporosis, and stroke. To test the potential anti‐inflammaging effect of hAAT, we generated transgenic Drosophila lines expressing hAAT. Surprisingly, the lifespan of hAAT‐expressing lines was significantly longer than that of genetically matched controls. To understand the mechanism underlying the anti‐aging effect of hAAT, we monitored the expression of aging‐associated genes and found that aging‐induced expressions of Relish (NF‐?B orthologue) and Diptericin were significantly lower in hAAT lines than in control lines. RNA‐seq analysis revealed that innate immunity genes regulated by NF‐kB were significantly and specifically inhibited in hAAT transgenic Drosophila lines. To confirm this anti‐inflammaging effect in human cells, we treated X‐ray‐induced senescence cells with hAAT and showed that hAAT treatment significantly decreased the expression and maturation of IL‐6 and IL‐8, two major factors of senescence‐associated secretory phenotype. Consistent with results from Drosophila,RNA‐seq analysis also showed that hAAT treatment significantly inhibited inflammation related genes and pathways. Together, our results demonstrated that hAAT significantly inhibited inflammaging in both Drosophila and human cell models. As hAAT is a FDA‐approved drug with a confirmed safety profile, this novel therapeutic potential may make hAAT a promising candidate to combat aging and aging‐related diseases.     

Building ‘validated’ mouse models of human cancer

As a model system for the understanding of human cancer, the mouse has proved immensely valuable. Indeed, studies of mouse models have helped to define the nature of cancer as a genetic disease and demonstrated the causal role of genetic events found in tumors. As the scientific and medical community's understanding of human cancer becomes more sophisticated, however, limitations and potential weaknesses of existing models are revealed. How valid are these murine models for the understanding and treatment of human cancer? The answer, it appears, depends on the nature of the research requirement. Certain models are better suited for particular applications. Using novel molecular tools and genetic strategies, improved models have recently been described that accurately mimic many aspects of human cancer.     

Sex‐biased dispersal of human ancestors

Some anthropologists and primatologists have argued that, judging by extant chimpanzees and humans, which are female‐biased dispersers, the common ancestors of humans and chimpanzees were also female‐biased dispersers. It has been thought that sex‐biased dispersal patterns have been genetically transmitted for millions of years. However, this character has changed many times with changes in environment and life‐form during human evolution and historical times. I examined life‐form and social organization of nonhuman primates, among them gatherers (foragers), hunter‐gatherers, agriculturalists, industrialists, and modern and extant humans. I conclude that dispersal patterns changed in response to environmental conditions during primate and human evolution.     

Mutable environments and permeable human bodies★

Geologists have declared an epochal transition to the Anthropocene, formally recognizing humans as the driving force of destructive global change; a distinction can no longer be made between human history and natural history. Certain commentators argue that Capitalocene better characterizes the situation, given that the effects of planetary decimation and global warming are not equally distributed among humans. A second conceptual change has recently taken place in which genomes are recognized as reactive to environmental stimuli both external and internal to the human body. In the post‐genomic era, genes neither initiate life nor drive human development. The science of the bourgeoning field of behavioural epigenetics is introduced, followed by illustrative examples of environmentally caused epigenetic changes that impact negatively on health. Epigeneticists routinely delimit their attention to detecting measurable changes at the molecular level. It is argued that anthropological contributions that incorporate subjective accounts of embodiment involving past and present events are crucial in order to better situate and account for biological differences and health outcomes historically, ecologically, and politically. Discussion of the microbiome provides a cautionary reminder that microbes are the ultimate driving force of health and illness. In conclusion, the Earth Optimism movement is briefly introduced, as is the concept of resilience, but alone these positive moves will not curb unremitting global warming.