Margie Profet

Last updated
Margie Profet
Born (1958-08-07) August 7, 1958 (age 66)
Berkeley, California, U.S.
Alma materHarvard University
University of California, Berkeley
Scientific career
FieldsEvolutionary biology

Margaret J. "Margie" Profet (born August 7, 1958) is an American evolutionary biologist with no formal biology training who created a decade-long controversy when she published her findings on the role of Darwinian evolution in menstruation, [1] allergies [2] and morning sickness. [3] [4] She argued that these three processes had evolved to eliminate pathogens, carcinogens and other toxins from the body.

Contents

Career

A graduate of Harvard University, where she studied political philosophy with Harvey Mansfield and graduated in 1980, and University of California, Berkeley, where in 1985 she received a bachelor's degree in physics, Profet returned to school in 1994, studying mathematics at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she was awarded a "visiting scholar" position in the astronomy department, an allied discipline. [5] Several years later, she returned to Harvard, once again to study math.

When Profet won a MacArthur Fellowship in 1993, [6] international media took notice. New York Times reporter Natalie Angier called Profet's theory that menstruation protected some female mammal's reproductive canals a "radical new view". [7] Scientific American,Time,Omni, and even People Magazine all followed with in-depth profiles of the 35-year-old "maverick" scientific prodigy. [8] [9] [10] [11]

Profet went on to publish two equally controversial bestselling books, 1995's Protecting Your Baby-To-Be: Preventing Birth Defects in the First Trimester and a 1997 follow up, Pregnancy Sickness: Using Your Body's Natural Defenses to Protect Your Baby-To-Be. Supporters—including U.C. Santa Barbara anthropologist Donald Symons and U.C. Berkeley toxicologist Bruce Ames—considered her work a pioneering analysis of evolutionary theory in a never-before-studied, everyday context. In 2000, Cornell University researchers Samuel Flaxman and Paul Sherman provided evidence supporting Profet's hypothesis that "morning sickness" is an evolved trait that protects the mother and her fetus against toxins ingested by the mother. [12]

In 2008, Paul Sherman and Janet Shellman-Sherman found that Profet's theory that allergies are evolved ways to expel toxins and carcinogens—the so-called "toxin" or "prophylaxis hypothesis"—may explain a mysterious observation dating back to 1953 and replicated many times since: People with allergies are at much lower risk for some types of cancers, especially malignancies of tissues that are directly exposed to the external environment, even including the brain tumor glioma. [13] [14]

While research has for decades supported Profet's prophylaxis hypothesis applied to carcinogens, Stanford University Medical School and Yale University Medical School researchers in 2013 reported similar experimental support applying it to toxins, specifically bee venom. [15] Bee venom induces allergic reactions in some people that can include anaphylactic shock and death. Both studies were published in the journal Immunology.

Yale immunology researchers Noah W. Palm, Ruslan Medzhitov, et al. reported that Phospholipase A2—the major allergen in bee venom -- "is sensed by the innate immune system" and induces an immune response in mice that can protect against potentially fatal venom doses. [16]

Likewise, injecting mice with a small dose of bee venom conferred immunity to a much larger, fatal dose, Stanford researchers Stephen Galli, Thomas Marichal, and Philipp Starkl found. "Our findings support the hypothesis that this kind of venom-specific, IgE-associated, adaptive immune response developed, at least in evolutionary terms, to protect the host against potentially toxic amounts of venom, such as would happen if the animal encountered a whole nest of bees, or in the event of a snakebite," Galli explained. [17] [18] [19]

The 2011 play The How and the Why by Sarah Treem draws on Profet's work on menstruation. [20]

Disappearance and discovery

Profet vanished from Cambridge, Massachusetts: according to friends and colleagues, in 2005; according to family members, before 2005. Her whereabouts were unknown for more than seven years until she was found in Boston, Massachusetts, after a long ordeal with poverty and illness. She was reunited with her family in Southern California on May 16, 2012, as a result of nationwide attention from a May 2012 Psychology Today article. [21] [22] [23]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Venom</span> Toxin secreted by an animal

Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved venom apparatus, such as fangs or a stinger, in a process called envenomation. Venom is often distinguished from poison, which is a toxin that is passively delivered by being ingested, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin, and toxungen, which is actively transferred to the external surface of another animal via a physical delivery mechanism.

An allergen is an otherwise harmless substance that triggers an allergic reaction in sensitive individuals by stimulating an immune response.

Morning sickness, also called nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP), is a symptom of pregnancy that involves nausea or vomiting. Despite the name, nausea or vomiting can occur at any time during the day. Typically the symptoms occur between the 4th and 16th weeks of pregnancy. About 10% of women still have symptoms after the 20th week of pregnancy. A severe form of the condition is known as hyperemesis gravidarum and results in weight loss.

In biology, immunity is the state of being insusceptible or resistant to a noxious agent or process, especially a pathogen or infectious disease. Immunity may occur naturally or be produced by prior exposure or immunization.

In medicine, the hygiene hypothesis states that early childhood exposure to particular microorganisms protects against allergies by properly tuning the immune system. In particular, a lack of such exposure is thought to lead to poor immune tolerance. The time period for exposure begins before birth and ends at school age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Immunoglobulin E</span> Immunoglobulin E (IgE) Antibody

Immunoglobulin E (IgE) is a type of antibody that has been found only in mammals. IgE is synthesised by plasma cells. Monomers of IgE consist of two heavy chains and two light chains, with the ε chain containing four Ig-like constant domains (Cε1–Cε4). IgE is thought to be an important part of the immune response against infection by certain parasitic worms, including Schistosoma mansoni, Trichinella spiralis, and Fasciola hepatica. IgE is also utilized during immune defense against certain protozoan parasites such as Plasmodium falciparum. IgE may have evolved as a defense to protect against venoms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snake venom</span> Highly modified saliva containing zootoxins

Snake venom is a highly toxic saliva containing zootoxins that facilitates in the immobilization and digestion of prey. This also provides defense against threats. Snake venom is usually injected by unique fangs during a bite, though some species are also able to spit venom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evolutionary medicine</span> Application of modern evolutionary theory to understanding health and disease

Evolutionary medicine or Darwinian medicine is the application of modern evolutionary theory to understanding health and disease. Modern biomedical research and practice have focused on the molecular and physiological mechanisms underlying health and disease, while evolutionary medicine focuses on the question of why evolution has shaped these mechanisms in ways that may leave us susceptible to disease. The evolutionary approach has driven important advances in the understanding of cancer, autoimmune disease, and anatomy. Medical schools have been slower to integrate evolutionary approaches because of limitations on what can be added to existing medical curricula. The International Society for Evolution, Medicine and Public Health coordinates efforts to develop the field. It owns the Oxford University Press journal Evolution, Medicine and Public Health and The Evolution and Medicine Review.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allergen immunotherapy</span> Medical treatment for environmental allergies

Allergen immunotherapy, also known as desensitization or hypo-sensitization, is a medical treatment for environmental allergies and asthma. Immunotherapy involves exposing people to larger and larger amounts of allergens in an attempt to change the immune system's response.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schmidt sting pain index</span> Pain scale for insect stings

The Schmidt sting pain index is a pain scale rating the relative pain caused by different hymenopteran stings. It is mainly the work of Justin O. Schmidt, who was an entomologist at the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Arizona. Schmidt published a number of works on the subject and claimed to have been stung by the majority of stinging Hymenoptera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Psychological adaptation</span> Psychological theory

A psychological adaptation is a functional, cognitive or behavioral trait that benefits an organism in its environment. Psychological adaptations fall under the scope of evolved psychological mechanisms (EPMs), however, EPMs refer to a less restricted set. Psychological adaptations include only the functional traits that increase the fitness of an organism, while EPMs refer to any psychological mechanism that developed through the processes of evolution. These additional EPMs are the by-product traits of a species’ evolutionary development, as well as the vestigial traits that no longer benefit the species’ fitness. It can be difficult to tell whether a trait is vestigial or not, so some literature is more lenient and refers to vestigial traits as adaptations, even though they may no longer have adaptive functionality. For example, xenophobic attitudes and behaviors, some have claimed, appear to have certain EPM influences relating to disease aversion, however, in many environments these behaviors will have a detrimental effect on a person's fitness. The principles of psychological adaptation rely on Darwin's theory of evolution and are important to the fields of evolutionary psychology, biology, and cognitive science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helminthic therapy</span> Deliberate infestation with parasitic worms

Helminthic therapy, an experimental type of immunotherapy, is the treatment of autoimmune diseases and immune disorders by means of deliberate infestation with a helminth or with the eggs of a helminth. Helminths are parasitic worms such as hookworms, whipworms, and threadworms that have evolved to live within a host organism on which they rely for nutrients. The theory behind helminth therapy is that these worms reduce negative immune responses due to their TH2 immune response that downregulates the abnormal T-cell responses recently associated with autoimmune disorders. This therapy ties to the Hygiene hypothesis in that the lack of exposure to bacteria and parasites such as helminths can cause a weaker immune system leading to being more susceptible to autoimmune disease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toxicofera</span> Proposed clade of scaled reptiles

Toxicofera is a proposed clade of scaled reptiles (squamates) that includes the Serpentes (snakes), Anguimorpha and Iguania. Toxicofera contains about 4,600 species of extant Squamata. It encompasses all venomous reptile species, as well as numerous related non-venomous species. There is little morphological evidence to support this grouping; however, it has been recovered by all molecular analyses as of 2012.

Immune dysregulation is any proposed or confirmed breakdown or maladaptive change in molecular control of immune system processes. For example, dysregulation is a component in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases and some cancers. Immune system dysfunction, as seen in IPEX syndrome leads to immune dysfunction, polyendocrinopathy, enteropathy, X-linked (IPEX). IPEX typically presents during the first few months of life with diabetes mellitus, intractable diarrhea, failure to thrive, eczema, and hemolytic anemia. unrestrained or unregulated immune response.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sickness behavior</span> Aspect of psychology

Sickness behavior is a coordinated set of adaptive behavioral changes that develop in ill individuals during the course of an infection. They usually, but not always, accompany fever and aid survival. Such illness responses include lethargy, depression, anxiety, malaise, loss of appetite, sleepiness, hyperalgesia, reduction in grooming and failure to concentrate. Sickness behavior is a motivational state that reorganizes the organism's priorities to cope with infectious pathogens. It has been suggested as relevant to understanding depression, and some aspects of the suffering that occurs in cancer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jellyfish dermatitis</span> Medical condition

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Menstruation is the shedding of the uterine lining (endometrium). It occurs on a regular basis in uninseminated sexually reproductive-age females of certain mammal species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evolution of snake venom</span> Origin and diversification of snake venom through geologic time

Venom in snakes and some lizards is a form of saliva that has been modified into venom over its evolutionary history. In snakes, venom has evolved to kill or subdue prey, as well as to perform other diet-related functions. While snakes occasionally use their venom in self defense, this is not believed to have had a strong effect on venom evolution. The evolution of venom is thought to be responsible for the enormous expansion of snakes across the globe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Three-finger protein</span> Protein superfamily

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul W. Sherman</span>

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References

  1. ↑ Profet, Margie (September 1993). "Menstruation as a Defense Against Pathogens Transported by Sperm". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 68 (3). Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press: 335–386. doi:10.1086/418170. ISSN   0033-5770. JSTOR   2831191. PMID   8210311. S2CID   23738569.
  2. ↑ Profet, Margie (March 1991). "The Function of Allergy: Immunological Defense Against Toxins". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 66 (1). Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press: 23–62. doi:10.1086/417049. ISSN   0033-5770. JSTOR   2830331. PMID   2052671. S2CID   5648170.
  3. ↑ Profet, Margie (1988). "The Evolution of Pregnancy Sickness as Protection to the Embryo Against Pleistocene Teratogens". Evolutionary Theory. 8: 177–190.
  4. ↑ Profet, Margie (1992). "Chapter 8: Pregnancy Sickness as Adaptation: A Deterrent to Maternal Ingestion of Teratogens". In Barkow, Jerome H.; Cosmides, Leda; Tooby, John (eds.). The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture. Oxford University Press. pp. 327–366. ISBN   978-0-19-506023-2.
  5. ↑ Mcdermott, Terry (31 July 1994). "Darwinian Medicine—It's a War Out There and Margie Profet, a Leading Theorist in a New Science, Thinks the Human Body Does Some Pretty Weird Things to Survive". Seattle Times Newspaper.
  6. ↑ "Fellows List – P". MacArthur Foundation. Archived from the original on 12 April 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2011.
  7. ↑ Angier, Natalie (21 September 1993). "Radical New View of Role of Menstruation". The New York Times.
  8. ↑ Holloway, Marguerite (April 1996). "Evolutionary Theories for Everyday Life". Scientific American. Archived from the original on 21 February 1999.
  9. ↑ Bloch, Hannah (4 October 1993). "School Isn't My Kind of Thing". Time.
  10. ↑ Plummer, William (11 October 1993). "A curse no more". People Magazine. Vol. 40, no. 15.
  11. ↑ Rudavsky, Shari (May 1994). "Margie Profet: Co-evolution". Omni (Interview). Archived from the original on 15 March 2008.
  12. ↑ Flaxman, Samuel M.; Sherman, Paul (June 2000). "Morning sickness: a mechanism for protecting mother and embryo". Quarterly Review of Biology. 75 (2). University of Chicago Press: 113-148. doi:10.1086/393377. PMID   10858967.
  13. ↑ Sherman, Paul W.; Holland, Erica; Sherman, Janet Shellman (2008). "Allergies: Their Role in Cancer Prevention". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 83 (4). University of Chicago Press: 339–362. doi:10.1086/592850. ISSN   0033-5770. PMID   19143335. S2CID   42767681.
  14. ↑ Martin, M. (20 February 2012). "Research Reinforces Potential Allergies-Glioma Connection". JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 104 (5). Oxford University Press: 353–356. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djs153 . ISSN   0027-8874. PMID   22349202.
  15. ↑ Tsai, Mindy; Starkl, Philipp; Marichal, Thomas; Galli, Stephen J (October 2015). "Testing the 'toxin hypothesis of allergy': mast cells, IgE, and innate and acquired immune responses to venoms". Current Opinion in Immunology. 36: 80–87. doi:10.1016/j.coi.2015.07.001. PMC   4593748 . PMID   26210895.
  16. ↑ Palm, Noah W.; Rosenstein, Rachel K.; Yu, Shuang; Schenten, Dominik D.; Florsheim, Esther; Medzhitov, Ruslan (2013). "Bee Venom Phospholipase A2 Induces a Primary Type 2 Response that Is Dependent on the Receptor ST2 and Confers Protective Immunity". Immunity. 39 (5): 976–985. doi:10.1016/j.immuni.2013.10.006. PMC   3852615 . PMID   24210353.
  17. ↑ Marichal, Thomas; Starkl, Philipp; Reber, Laurent L.; Kalesnikoff, Janet; Oettgen, Hans C.; Tsai, Mindy; Metz, Martin; Galli, Stephen J. (2013). "A Beneficial Role for Immunoglobulin E in Host Defense against Honeybee Venom". Immunity. 39 (5): 963–975. doi:10.1016/j.immuni.2013.10.005. PMC   4164235 . PMID   24210352.
  18. ↑ Sharlach, Molly (24 October 2013). "Bee sting allergy could be a defense response gone haywire, scientists say". Stanford Medicine News Center. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
  19. ↑ Foley, James A. (25 October 2013). "Severe Allergies to Bee Stings may be Malfunctioning Evolutionary Response". Nature World News.
  20. ↑ Gold, Sylviane (12 October 2012). "Women on the Verge of an Explanation: A Review of 'The How and the Why,' at Penguin Rep Theater". The New York Times .
  21. ↑ Martin, Mike (1 May 2012). "The Mysterious Case of the Vanishing Genius". Psychology Today. Archived from the original on 2013-02-01.
  22. ↑ Martin, Mike (29 May 2012) [2009]. "Margie Profet's Unfinished Symphony". Weekly Scientist. Archived from the original on 24 October 2013. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
  23. ↑ Maher, Brendan (31 May 2012). "Missing biologist surfaces, reunites with family". blogs.nature.com.
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