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Volume 10 · Issue 1 · 2023 · pp. 133-140
- Keywords
- altruistic death; evolutionary suicide; cytokine storm; COVID-19; natural selection; programmed cell death; suicide; resilience theory; adaptation
Cite as
Dragomir, L. C. (2023). ALTRUISTIC DEATH, EVOLUTIONARY SOLUTION TO SAVE THE SPECIES. Social Sciences and Education Research Review, 10(1), 133-140. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8151105 (opens in a new tab)
Abstract. According to the researchers, in addition to infecting the lung cells, the virus causes damage through direct or indirect infection of the endothelial cells, which are the ones that form the blood vessels that are in the lungs. José Alcamí, researcher at the Carlos III Health Institute, Spain says that our immune system can be thought of as a kind of army, a force that fights against invading microbes. "In the mechanisms of our body there are soluble substances that cells produce: cytokines. They are like projectiles that locate infected cells and selectively destroy them." It is a protective mechanism that occurs in any inflammation and is usually able to stop over time, but there are times when it gets out of control and the production of these cytokines becomes excessive, both quantitatively and qualitatively. "It's like sowing the whole body with grenades: infected cells will be destroyed, in this case by the coronavirus, but there will also be destruction of healthy cells". New increases in the number of those infected and hospitalized with the coronavirus have once again called the cytokine storm concept into question. An uncontrolled reaction of the immune system that has had a fatal outcome for many of the patients with COVID-19. "What probably happens is that the virus infects cells in the lungs causing pneumonia, but it also damages blood vessel cells. Thus, a cascade of events is caused that will lead to extremely high levels of certain cytokines, which will not only cause damage to the lungs, but to the whole body", states Alcamí. Russian scientists were tasked with finding a substance that would act as a "death switch," stopping the chain reaction of the cytokine storm. The drug, called Leitragin, was developed by the Biomedical Technological Research Center of the Russian Federal Agency for Medicine and Biology (FMBA) and is currently in clinical trials in Russia. Trying to stop this uncontrolled immune response while maintaining the body's ability to fight the virus without causing further damage is what scientists and doctors in intensive care units around the world are struggling to achieve. In this regard, Leitragin appears as an essential change, because its new mechanism works in a specific way and is said to be completely safe for the health of patients. Professor Skulachev says they were only able to identify one key "offender". This "evolutionary suicide mechanism" that attacks a contagious individual to protect the rest of the species invites reflection. We are talking about an involuntary suicide, a biological programming hitherto ignored in humans. Finally, finally, the evolutionary mechanism discovered during the research of the Russian scientists who studied the cytokine storm leads to the conclusion that we are programmed, like bacteria, to suffer an altruistic death in case of epidemic infections that endanger the survival of the species.
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