One Health: Extreme animal species as a key to human disease

Numerous animals live in extreme environments and have adapted their metabolism accordingly. Can this knowledge be used to develop solutions that help combat human disease? An international research team, with participation from the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology (FIWI) at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, has addressed this question with a meta-study and outlined new avenues for solutions. The One Health study focuses, among other things, on obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.

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The scientific review, published in the top journal Diabetologia, took a closer look at “extreme animal species” based on previously published studies. Led by Peter Stenvinkel of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, the researchers investigated the remarkable metabolic adaptations of animals living in extreme environments. The study provides insights into their resilience, flexibility, and disease resistance. Species such as hibernating brown bears, migratory birds, cavefish, Greenland sharks, and naked mole-rats exhibit unique metabolic characteristics that challenge conventional paradigms of metabolic regulation.

Novel solutions for human disease According to the scientists, these adaptations – including resistance to hypoxia (oxygen deficiency) and metabolic aging – offer potential solutions for human metabolic disorders, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Findings from comparative physiology, particularly regarding the mechanisms by which animals cope with food scarcity, extreme temperatures, and hypoxia, could help identify new therapeutic targets to promote human health.

Study co-author Johanna Painer-Gigler from FIWI adds: “For example, hibernation can serve as a model for understanding metabolic diseases and provide insights into reversible insulin resistance and energy homeostasis. Based on this, novel treatments for metabolic diseases are a realistic prospect.”

Longer, healthier lives through high resilience Furthermore, long-lived species and their adaptations to environmental stress can teach us a great deal about aging and resilience. According to the scientists, there is also considerable valuable knowledge to be gained in the field of cardiovascular diseases and in understanding how resilient species adapt to global environmental changes. Overall, the resilience of these animal species to adverse environmental conditions is often associated with healthy longevity and a low risk of disease.

Climate change – a threat even to species adapted to extremes The researchers view climate change as the greatest threat – it endangers, according to their findings, even the survival of species adapted to the most extreme conditions. “We call for a holistic approach to species conservation and environmental protection in order to preserve these species and the valuable insights they offer for guiding our metabolic health,” emphasizes study co-author Szilvia Kalogeropoulu from FIWI.

The article „Comparative physiology and biomimetics in metabolic and environmental health: what can we learn from extreme animal phenotypes?“ by Peter Stenvinkel, Peter Kotanko, Johanna Painer-Gigler, Paul G. Shiels, Pieter Evenepoel, Leon Schurgers, Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, Szilvia Kalogeropoulu, Joshua Schiffman and Richard J. Johnson was published in „Diabetologia“.

Scientific article

Scientific contact:
Dr. Johanna Painer-Gigler
Forschungsinstitut für Wildtierkunde und Ökologie
Veterinärmedizinische Universität Wien (Vetmeduni)
Johanna.Painer@vetmeduni.ac.at

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