Molecular role of biodiversity on our planet and links of the to human survival with the examples and implications in epigenetics and cancer
Sasha Kagansky
University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, GB
We observe a sharp decline in biodiversity since modern extinction rates are high, at 100 to 1000 times greater than background extinction rates calculated over the eras. Though new species appear, however, existing species go extinct at a rate 1000 times that of species formation. The biodiversity loss will alter the ecosystem functions and their ability to provide goods and services for the human health and wellbeing. More importantly, the irreversible loss of traditional medicine and metabolites diversity concomitant with the extinction of microbes, plants, fungi and animals will threaten the scientific discoveries for medicinal purposes. Despite all efforts to include biodiversity protection within the international agendas, developing countries, the home of most of the world’s biodiversity, are rapidly losing their biodiversity heritage. Here we argue that biodiversity is also the key for maintaining public health as well as the success of global drug discovery efforts. Despite scientific or technical "improvements" and managerial "process optimisation", drug discovery was more productive in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, when many of the methodologies that are now widely applied had not been invented and when other R&D approaches were dominant. In particular, most early successful blockbuster drugs were derived from phenotypic screening rather than target-based drug discovery. Our phenotype based screening of various natural extracts using patient derived cell lines are pointing to the multitude of the anti-cancer molecules, which promise to solve cancer problems, provided conservation and research of the host species. We aim to create an interdisciplinary knowledge hub to connect conservation, medical chemistry, public health data, traditional medicine, etc. to facilitate global efforts in preserving natural bio- and chemodiversity.