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Erenpreisa J, Vainshelbaum NM, Lazovska M, Karklins R, Salmina K, Zayakin P, Rumnieks F, Inashkina I, Pjanova D, Erenpreiss J. The Price of Human Evolution: Cancer-Testis Antigens, the Decline in Male Fertility and the Increase in Cancer. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:11660. [PMID: 37511419 PMCID: PMC10380301 DOI: 10.3390/ijms241411660] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2023] [Revised: 07/15/2023] [Accepted: 07/17/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023] Open
Abstract
The increasing frequency of general and particularly male cancer coupled with the reduction in male fertility seen worldwide motivated us to seek a potential evolutionary link between these two phenomena, concerning the reproductive transcriptional modules observed in cancer and the expression of cancer-testis antigens (CTA). The phylostratigraphy analysis of the human genome allowed us to link the early evolutionary origin of cancer via the reproductive life cycles of the unicellulars and early multicellulars, potentially driving soma-germ transition, female meiosis, and the parthenogenesis of polyploid giant cancer cells (PGCCs), with the expansion of the CTA multi-families, very late during their evolution. CTA adaptation was aided by retrovirus domestication in the unstable genomes of mammals, for protecting male fertility in stress conditions, particularly that of humans, as compensation for the energy consumption of a large complex brain which also exploited retrotransposition. We found that the early and late evolutionary branches of human cancer are united by the immunity-proto-placental network, which evolved in the Cambrian and shares stress regulators with the finely-tuned sex determination system. We further propose that social stress and endocrine disruption caused by environmental pollution with organic materials, which alter sex determination in male foetuses and further spermatogenesis in adults, bias the development of PGCC-parthenogenetic cancer by default.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Marija Lazovska
- Molecular Genetics Scientific Laboratory, Riga Stradins University, Dzirciema 16, LV-1007 Riga, Latvia
| | - Roberts Karklins
- Molecular Genetics Scientific Laboratory, Riga Stradins University, Dzirciema 16, LV-1007 Riga, Latvia
| | - Kristine Salmina
- Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre, Ratsupites 1-1k, LV-1067 Riga, Latvia
| | - Pawel Zayakin
- Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre, Ratsupites 1-1k, LV-1067 Riga, Latvia
| | - Felikss Rumnieks
- Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre, Ratsupites 1-1k, LV-1067 Riga, Latvia
| | - Inna Inashkina
- Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre, Ratsupites 1-1k, LV-1067 Riga, Latvia
| | - Dace Pjanova
- Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre, Ratsupites 1-1k, LV-1067 Riga, Latvia
- Molecular Genetics Scientific Laboratory, Riga Stradins University, Dzirciema 16, LV-1007 Riga, Latvia
| | - Juris Erenpreiss
- Molecular Genetics Scientific Laboratory, Riga Stradins University, Dzirciema 16, LV-1007 Riga, Latvia
- Clinic iVF-Riga, Zala 1, LV-1010 Riga, Latvia
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