Jaap de Roode: How butterflies self-medicate

Prevoditelj: Senzos Osijek Recezent: Ivan Stamenković

So infectious diseases, right?

Zarazne bolesti, zar ne?

Infectious diseases are still the main cause

Zarazne bolesti su još uvjek glavni uzrok

of human suffering and death around the world.

ljudskih patnji i smrti u svijetu.

Every year, millions of people die of diseases such as T.B., malaria, HIV,

Godišnje milijuni ljudi umru od bolesti poput tuberkuloze, malarije, HIV – a,

around the world and even in the United States.

širom svijeta, čak i u SAD – u.

Every year, thousands of Americans die of seasonal flu.

Svake godine tisuće Amerikanaca umru od sezonske gripe.

Now of course, humans, we are creative. Right?

Naravno, mi ljudi smo inovativni, zar ne?

We have come up with ways to protect ourselves against these diseases.

Pronašli smo načine da se zaštitimo od tih bolesti.

We have drugs and vaccines.

Imamo lijekove i cijepiva.

And we're conscious -- we learn from our experiences

Svjesni smo -- učimo iz iskustava

and come up with creative solutions.

i pronalazimo kreativna riješenja.

We used to think we're alone in this, but now we know we're not.

Prije smo mislili da smo sami u tome, sada znamo da nismo.

We're not the only medical doctors.

Nismo mi jedini liječnici.

Now we know that there's a lot of animals out there that can do it too.

Sada znamo da mnoge životinje mogu čini isto.

Most famous, perhaps, chimpanzees.

Najpoznatiji primjer su čimpanze.

Not so much different from us,

Ne toliko različite od nas,

they can use plants to treat their intestinal parasites.

koriste biljke u liječenju crijevnih parazita.

But the last few decades have shown us that other animals can do it too:

Posljednjih desetljeća smo spoznali da se i druge životinje mogu liječiti:

elephants, porcupines, sheep, goats, you name it.

slonovi, koze, dikobrazi, ovce su neki primjeri.

And even more interesting than that is that recent discoveries are telling us

Još zanimljivija su nedavna otkrića koja govore

that insects and other little animals with smaller brains can use medication too.

da insekti i druge male životinje, sa još manjim mozgovima koriste lijekove.

The problem with infectious diseases, as we all know,

Problem sa zaraznim bolestima, kao što znamo,

is that pathogens continue to evolve,

je stalno evoluiranje patogena,

and a lot of the drugs that we have developed

i mnogi lijekovi koje smo razvili

are losing their efficacy.

gube učinkovitost.

And therefore, there is this great need to find new ways to discover drugs

Stoga, postoji velika potreba pronaći nove načine otkrivanja lijekova

that we can use against our diseases.

koje možemo koristiti protiv naših bolesti.

Now, I think that we should look at these animals,

Mislim da bi smo trebali pogledati ove životinje,

and we can learn from them how to treat our own diseases.

i učiti od njih kako liječiti vlastite bolesti.

As a biologist, I have been studying monarch butterflies for the last 10 years.

Kao biolog pručavao sam leptire monarhe posljednjih 10 godina.

Now, monarchs are extremely famous for their spectacular migrations

Monarsi su posebice poznati po svojim spektakularnim migracijama

from the U.S. and Canada down to Mexico every year,

iz SAD – a i Kanade u Meksiko svake godine,

where millions of them come together,

kada se milijuni njih okupe,

but it's not why I started studying them.

ali to nije razlog zašto sam ih počeo proučavati.

I study monarchs because they get sick.

Monarhe proučavam jer se razboljevaju.

They get sick like you. They get sick like me.

Razbole se poput vas ili poput mene.

And I think what they do can tell us a lot about drugs

Pomislio sam da ono što čine nam može reći puno o lijekovima

that we can develop for humans.

koje možemo razviti za potrebe ljudi.

Now, the parasites that monarchs get infected with

Paraziti kojima se monarsi zaražavaju

are called ophryocystis elektroscirrha -- a mouthful.

se zovu Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, težak naziv.

What they do is they produce spores,

One proizvode spore,

millions of spores on the outside of the butterfly

milijune spora na vanjskoj strani leptira

that are shown as little specks in between the scales of the butterfly.

koje se vide kao sitne točkice između ljuskica leptira.

And this is really detrimental to the monarch.

Vrlo su štetne za leptira.

It shortens their lifespan,

Skraćuju im životni vijek,

it reduces their ability to fly,

smanjuju mogućnost leta,

it can even kill them before they're even adults.

mogu ih ubiti prije nego postanu odrasle jedinke.

Very detrimental parasite.

Vrlo štetan prazit.

As part of my job, I spend a lot of time in the greenhouse growing plants,

Kao dio posla, provodim dosta vremena u stakleniku uzgajajući biljke,

and the reason for this is that monarchs are extremely picky eaters.

razlog tomu je što su monarsi vrlo izbirljivi po pitanju hrane.

They only eat milkweed as larvae.

Kao larve se hrane samo mlječikom.

Luckily, there are several species of milkweed that they can use,

Srećom postoji nekoliko vrsta mlječika koje možemo koristiti,

and all these milkweeds have cardenolides in them.

a sve te vrste imaju kardenolide u sebi.

These are chemicals that are toxic.

To su vrlo toksični spojevi.

They're toxic to most animals, but not to monarchs.

Toksični su mnogim životinjama, ali ne i monarsima.

In fact, monarchs can take up the chemicals,

Zapravo, monarsi upijaju spojeve

put it in their own bodies, and it makes them toxic

ugrađuju ih u tijelo, čineći sebe toksičnima

against their predators, such as birds.

za grabežljivce poput ptica.

And what they do, then, is advertise this toxicity

Ono što sljedeće čine je oglašavanje toksičnosti

through their beautiful warning colorations

putem lijepih boja upozorenja

with this orange, black and white.

narančaste, crne i bijele.

So what I did during my job is grow plants in the greenhouse,

U stakleniku sam kao dio posla uzgajao

different ones, different milkweeds.

različite biljke, različite mlječike.

Some were toxic, including the tropical milkweed,

Neke su otrovne, poput tropske mlječike,

with very high concentrations of these cardenolides.

jer sadrži velike količine kardenolida.

And some were not toxic.

Druge pak nisu toksične.

And then I fed them to monarchs.

Potom sam hranio monarhe njima.

Some of the monarchs were healthy. They had no disease.

Neki od monarha su bili zdravi, bez bolesti.

But some of the monarchs were sick,

Neki su bili bolesni,

and what I found is that some of these milkweeds are medicinal,

ono što sam pronašao jest da su neke od tih mlječika ljekovite,

meaning they reduce the disease symptoms in the monarch butterflies,

točnije umanjuju simptome bolesti u leptira,

meaning these monarchs can live longer when they are infected

što rezultira duljim životom zaraženih leptira

when feeding on these medicinal plants.

ako se hrane tim ljekovitim biljkama.

And when I found this, I had this idea,

Kada sam došao do otkrića dobio sam ideju,

and a lot of people said it was a crazy idea,

mnogi su rekli da je ideja luda,

but I thought, what if monarchs can use this?

pomislio sam što ako monarsi koriste tu ljekovitost?

What if they can use these plants as their own form of medicine?

Što ako mogu koristiti te biljke kao vlastiti oblik lijeka?

What if they can act as medical doctors?

Što ako se ponašaju kao vlastiti liječnici?

So my team and I started doing experiments.

Stoga smo tim i ja počeli s eksperimentima.

In the first types of experiments,

U prvom tipu eksperimenta,

we had caterpillars, and gave them a choice:

gusjenicama smo dali izbor:

medicinal milkweed versus non-medicinal milkweed.

ljekovite i neljekovite mlječike.

And then we measured how much they ate of each species over their lifetime.

Potom smo mjerili koliko su jeli pojedine vrste tokom života.

And the result, as so often in science, was boring:

Rezultat, kako često biva u znanosti, je dosadan:

Fifty percent of their food was medicinal. Fifty percent was not.

polovica hrane je ljekovita, polovica nije.

These caterpillars didn't do anything for their own welfare.

Gusjenice nisu činile ništa po pitanju vlastitog zdravlja.

So then we moved on to adult butterflies,

Stoga smo se prebacili na odrasle leptire,

and we started asking the question

i počeli postavljati pitanja

whether it's the mothers that can medicate their offspring.

može li majka davati lijek svojim potomcima?

Can the mothers lay their eggs on medicinal milkweed

Može li majka poleći jaja na ljekovite mlječike

that will make their future offspring less sick?

I hoće li to potomke učiniti manje bolesnima?

We have done these experiments now over several years,

Te eksperimente smo provodili nekoliko godina,

and always get the same results.

i uvijek dobili iste rezultate.

What we do is we put a monarch in a big cage,

Monarhe smo stavili u veliki kavez,

a medicinal plant on one side, a non-medicinal plant on the other side,

sa ljekovitom biljkom na jednoj i neljekovitom biljkom na drugoj strani,

and then we measure the number of eggs that the monarchs lay on each plant.

potom smo mjerili broj položenih jaja na svakoj skupini biljaka.

And what we find when we do that is always the same.

Ono što smo otkrili u toj situaciji je uvijek isto.

What we find is that the monarchs strongly prefer the medicinal milkweed.

A to je da monarsi iznimno preferiraju ljekovite mlječike.

In other words, what these females are doing

drugim riječima, ono što ženke čine

is they're laying 68 percent of their eggs in the medicinal milkweed.

jest da polažu 68 posto jaja na ljekovite mlječike.

Intriguingly, what they do is they actually transmit the parasites

Zanimljivo je da zapravo prenose i parazite

when they're laying the eggs.

kada polažu jaja.

They cannot prevent this.

To ne mogu spriječiti.

They can also not medicate themselves.

Također ne mogu same sebe liječiti.

But what these experiments tell us

Ono što nam ti eksperimenti govore

is that these monarchs, these mothers, can lay their eggs on medicinal milkweed

jest da te ženke monarha mogu polagati jaja na ljekovite mlječike

that will make their future offspring less sick.

što će učiniti potomke manje bolesnima.

Now, this is a really important discovery, I think,

Mislim da je ovo vrlo važno otkriće,

not just because it tells us something cool about nature,

ne samo zato što nam kaže nešto fantastično o prirodi,

but also because it may tell us something more about how we should find drugs.

već zato što nam govori nešto više kako tražiti lijekove.

Now, these are animals that are very small

Ove životinje su vrlo male

and we tend to think of them as very simple.

i o njima mislimo da su vrlo jednostavne.

They have tiny little brains,

Iako imaju male mozgove,

yet they can do this very sophisticated medication.

mogu se liječiti na vrlo složen način.

Now, we know that even today, most of our drugs

Čak i danas, većina naših lijekova

derive from natural products, including plants,

se dobiva iz prirodnih spojeva, uključujući i one biljne,

and in indigenous cultures,

i u urođenim kulturama,

traditional healers often look at animals to find new drugs.

tradicionalni liječnici često promatraju životinje tražeći nove lijekove.

In this way, elephants have told us how to treat stomach upset,

Tako su nam slonovi rekli kako smiriti mučninu,

and porcupines have told people how to treat bloody diarrhea.

dikobrazi su nam rekli kako liječiti krvavu dijareju.

What I think is important, though, is to move beyond

Što smatram bitnim jest pomaknuti se dalje od

these large-brained mammals and give these guys more credit,

tih sisavaca sa velikim mozgom, i dati više zasluga

these simple animals, these insects that we tend to think of

ovim jednostavnijim životinjama, ovim kukcima o kojima razmišljamo

as very, very simple with tiny little brains.

kao vrlo jednostavnim, sa iznimno malim mozgovima.

The discovery that these animals can also use medication

Otkriće da ove životinje također mogu koristiti lijekove

opens up completely new avenues,

otvara potpuno nove vidike,

and I think that maybe one day, we will be treating human diseases

i smatram da će jednom se ljudske bolesti liječiti

with drugs that were first discovered by butterflies,

lijekovima koji su prvi puta otkrili leptiri,

and I think that is an amazing opportunity worth pursuing.

i smatram da je to nevjerovatna prilika vrijedna istraživanja.

Thank you so much.

Hvala vam puno.

(Applause)

(Pljesak)