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Human powers of hibernation may be dormant in genetic code

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Via: perrie-halpern • 6 years ago • 6 comments

Human powers of hibernation may be dormant in genetic code

"It sounds like science fiction, but there is absolute biological truth to this."

S E E D E D C O N T E N T

Bears do it. So do groundhogs, squirrels, turtles and many other animals. Humans, however, can’t hibernate — at least not right now.

But scientists exploring the genetic underpinnings of hibernation in animals think they may be able to unlock the same biological superpower in humans. That feat could transform medical care during both routine surgeries and dire medical emergencies when patients cannot immediately get access to lifesaving treatment. It could also make it possible for astronauts to snooze their way on long missions to Mars and other destinations in deep space.

The scientists think the ability to hibernate arose with the first ancestral mammal — a furry, tree-dwelling creature that lived 65 million years ago and eventually gave rise to most modern mammals, including humans. If they’re right, the keys to hibernation may lie hidden in the human genome .

"It sounds like science fiction, but there is absolute biological truth to this, and we have used all sorts of comparative genomics and other tools to understand the universality," says Anne Yoder, a Duke University biologist who studies hibernation. "Pretty much everyone in the field agrees this is an ancestral mammalian capacity that most mammals have lost or just aren't using."

HIBERNATION BASICS

Hibernation is much more than extended sleep. It brings dramatic changes in metabolism, including a drop in body temperature and reductions in heart rate and breathing. Some warm-blooded animals spend weeks during which their body temperature falls from around 37 degrees Celsius to as low as 3 degrees Celsius, their hearts beat just a few times a minute and the body’s energy consumption plummets.

Scientists are especially interested in the mechanisms that allow hibernating animals to return to full activity shortly after waking and avoid the health problems that affect humans after a few weeks in bed. These include bone loss, cardiovascular problems and muscle wasting.

"The applications we’re looking at come out of our understanding of what these animals have to do to survive hibernation throughout the year," says Ashley Zehnder, CEO of Fauna Bio, a San Francisco-based startup that is working to develop drugs for putting humans into hibernation.

Since at least 2002, emergency room doctors have been tapping in to the protective power of hibernation by using ice packs and cooling blankets to temporarily lower the body temperature of patients who are critically ill as a result of heart attack, brain injury, stroke or shock. Lowering body temperature by just a few degrees Celsius can protect the brain in particular by slowing metabolism, reducing swelling and delaying brain cell death that might normally occur due to lack of blood flow.

But the goal would be to replace this brute-force cooling technique — which can cause blood clotting problems and interfere with immune responses — with a process that works "naturally, safely, reversibly," says Hannah Carey, a professor of comparative biosciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. Her lab is working with Fauna Bio on sharing hibernation data as part of a broader collaboration between the privately funded startup and the hibernation science community.

If such research succeeds, Fauna Bio hopes to replace the ice packs with a drug that can put people into hibernation by directly lowering their metabolism. A gentler cooling of the body would naturally follow as a result.

DECODING HIBERNATION'S PAST FOR THE FUTURE

To create that hibernation wonder drug, researchers must first discover which groups of genes are activated during the hibernation process. That is why Fauna Bio is reaching out to many independent hibernation research groups in order to combine collections of biological tissue from different hibernator animals with new databases of sequenced genomes.

Human powers of hibernation may be dormant in genetic code

I have a friend with a couple of teenagers at home that seem to have their strands working full bore, they spend their lives in bed.

All kidding aside, this would be a boon for space travel with possible medical applications as well, if it can be unraveled.

Professor Participates

4 Dig 6 years ago

To create that hibernation wonder drug, researchers must first discover which groups of genes are activated during the hibernation process.

This is very interesting, but I wouldn't expect much to come from it. We probably do still have remnants of whatever genes controlled hibernation in our ancient ancestors, but if there hasn't been any selective pressure to keep those genes in good working order for millions and millions of years, then that's all they'll be -- remnants, pseudo genes. It won't just be a matter of finding out how to activate them, they'll probably be badly mutated and wouldn't function anyway. Not to mention the very high probability that evolution has changed our bodies so much that we wouldn't respond properly even if they could be activated.

Professor Principal

5 Trout Giggles 6 years ago

Hmmmmm.......if I could have put myself into hibernation mode after I broke my ankle I wouldn't have been in so much pain and I might have healed faster.