by Ranjini Iyer
Max said, “I still don’t understand what memory cells have to do with MetS. The bacteria doesn’t cause MetS, just the fevers, right? And so having the memory cells should mean the body can fight the fever if it occurs again. What does that have to do with MetS? I’m confused.”
Kevin smiled at her. “You hit the nail right on the head. The link between the bacteria and MetS-related diseases was the one Hiram was struggling to make, too. However, what he was finding was that people with metabolic syndrome, at least in his group of volunteers, seemed to have those specific bacterial memory cells. Many of these people hadn’t ingested the pill, remember? They had got it because of its contagious nature. There was a link between the bacteria and therefore the pill and Metabolic Syndrome, however tenuous it may be. And the link was what Hiram had to find. What was known, what Samuel had discovered, was that this Indus Valley pill and its bacteria lowered metabolic rate and increased life spans on one hand, but also caused metabolic syndrome on the other.”
Max pulled out her grandfather’s diary and began flipping the pages.
“Back up to that volunteer from Ikaria.” Julian said, “Was there something special about him after all?”
“Yes!” Kevin said. “This Ikarian had the memory cells, which meant he had also been affected by the bacteria. But unlike the others, he showed absolutely no risk factors for MetS. He was very healthy. Hiram started conversations with scientists and doctors in Ikaria. He also continued speaking to the former Berliner scientist who had called him. Hiram even paid a visit to Ikaria and found, upon testing a wide sample of people, that the people from Ikaria have the memory cells of the bacteria but are somehow immune to MetS and live very long healthy lives, free of any metabolic syndrome-related diseases. The Ikarians are known for their longevity.”
“Sort of like places in Italy and Japan?” Julian said. “Inexplicable reasons why people live really long lives there.”
“Yes, although their familial structure and social habits gives them longer lives, too,” Kevin said.
“Mind over matter,” Julian said. “Ohmm…” he hummed and closed his eyes.
Kevin smiled. “In our case, though, it was much more tangible. It was genetics.”
Max was fidgeting with her hair, her other hand holding a spot in her grandfather’s diary.
“You have something you want to tell us,” Kevin said in a fatherly tone.
Max showed them Samuel’s diary. “Their guide at the dig, Abdul Chapar, gleaned from the writings that the pill was from Ikaria. The Ikarians had asked the Colossus not to take it out of the island because of the curse. And he stole it anyway. Looks like the Ikarians knew something was wrong with the pill, even then. It helped them live longer. But outside the island, somehow, the pill failed.”
Kevin took the diary from her. “That certainly is interesting,” he murmured. “Anyway, Hiram put on his geneticist cap, did DNA sequencing, and found something these Ikarians could never have known all those centuries ago.”
Max realized she was holding her breath. “What?” she whispered.
Kevin said, “Time for a short science lesson.” He looked at Max and Julian in turn. “DNA is the basic building block of life. All life. DNA is made up of sequences called genes. These genes carry the blueprints to build life—plants, animals, humans.”
“Right,” Max said.
“Did you know though that only about 2 percent of our own human DNA is responsible for building all the cells in our body?” Kevin said.
“I had no idea.” Julian said.
“The rest, until recently, was called junk DNA,” Kevin went on. “We now know that this ‘junk’ plays a part in human development. Scientists now call this part of our DNA, very imaginatively, non-coding DNA.
“Man has travelled to the moon and back, and yet we know little about our own bodies. Non-coding DNA contains many mysteries. Pseudogenes are one of them. These genes have lost their ability to produce cells and proteins, possibly because of mutation. In layman’s terms, they have lost their work skills. These genes, however, can actually retain function for several million years and can be reactivated into working genes. And that brings us to what Hiram found.”
“My head is spinning.” Max put her hands over her cheeks.
Kevin put a hand over hers. “Stay with me.” He went on eagerly. “Hiram discovered that one particular pseudogene sequence was missing in the Ikarian Greeks. His discovery of this is nothing short of a miracle. Talk about a needle in a haystack!” He let out a laugh. “Hiram found that all his test subjects carried the fnkL_ps pseudogene. His group was pretty diverse.” Kevin looked down and checked Hiram’s papers, “He had Caucasians, Asians, Africans.”
Kevin went on, “Hiram found, however, that the Ikarians did not possess this particular pseudogene. The question was this: Was the missing gene sequence making the Ikarians somehow immune to some commonplace and yet potentially lethal afflictions?”
“And what was the answer?” Max took a sip of her tea.
“Of course, now he had to test the DNA of the people not from Ikaria to make sure he had concluded correctly. He checked the genes of his volunteers and compared those profiles to the Ikarians’.”
“And?”
“And that is when he found what he was looking for,” Kevin said. “The link!”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Kevin almost jumped in his seat. “Hiram found the link between the bacteria and MetS. The pseudogene he found was an endogenous retrovirus!”
“And what in Vishnu’s name is an endogenous retrovirus?” Max leaned wearily back into her chair.
Kevin chuckled. “ERVs or HERVs—human endogenous retroviruses—are fascinating. The majority of ERVs that occur in vertebrate genomes are ancient! Most of them have been inactivated by mutation. They are extremely unlikely to have negative effects on their hosts.”
“But…” Max said.
Kevin held up his hand. “Nevertheless, it is clear from studies that ERVs can be associated with disease.”
Max let her head drop to the table. “Now I have a headache.”
Kevin smiled. “Max, this is fascinating stuff. Your father was a genius. What he discovered was that the ancient bacteria from the pills produced an enzyme that triggered this endogenous retrovirus. I won’t go into the details of how.” Max let out a sigh of relief. “But this virus caused the risk factors for metabolic syndrome in humans, and it turns out it did so in the monkeys as well, since they are so closely related to us.”
Max stared at Kevin.
“Okay, okay,” Julian said, holding up his hands. “Let me see if I understand this. Everyone, or I should say people not like the Ikarians, has this retrovirus embedded in their DNA. And if they have been affected by the bacteria, the virus is activated in them—and as a result, they will have some form of MetS.”
“Yes!” Kevin said.
Julian shook his head. “Come on, how could he conclude something so drastic? I mean, it’s a big leap from a test group to, well…everyone!”
“A big leap, yes, but Hiram found the ERV in people not just in his study. He found it in people with and without MetS. He checked over a thousand volunteers from all over the globe. He spent a lot of time and a lot of his own money on the tests. He concluded that everyone who has that pseudogene sequence—which is most people outside Ikaria—has the virus.”
“So why are Ikarians,” Julian said, “the only ones without this gene sequence?”
Kevin shrugged. “There are probably regions all over the world like Ikaria with millions of people who are missing that gene sequence.”
“So if most people outside of Ikaria have the virus in their genes, why don’t they all have MetS?” Julian said.
Kevin raised his finger and stabbed the air with it. “Not everyone who has HIV develops AIDS. The truth is that every body is unique. Some people can fight the disease with good eating and living habits. Others just cannot, no matter what they do. Everyone reacts i
n a different way, but the common thread of the retrovirus is there. Funny, isn’t it? That makes MetS a viral condition.” Kevin became thoughtful.
Funny wasn’t the word, Max thought. She was the one who would always have the extra weight on her, no matter what she did. What a thought—a bacteria Opa had unleashed had made her the way she was. Well, that and her sweet tooth, to be fair.
Kevin went on. “What Hiram found was that the virus had, in all probability, remained dormant in people for centuries. When it encountered this particular bacterium, it was reactivated, thus causing metabolic syndrome in the host. And the bacterium was introduced into the world by Samuel’s pill. As I said before, our bodies are still enormous mysteries.”
“I don’t know,” Max said. The weight of the accusation Kevin was making—or rather her father was making—was too much. “This is a rather rash conclusion to draw—that Opa’s bacteria caused world-wide MetS. People have been obese for centuries.”
“You must remember that MetS isn’t only about obesity,” Kevin said. “MetS is a collection of risk factors. Low HDL, heart disease, diabetes, et cetera. People have died for centuries of all sorts of causes that were never diagnosed. A skinny man with high cholesterol dies suddenly. No one knows why. A sudden heart attack.”
Max pouted. “I still think it’s far-fetched.”
Kevin went on. “Think about when this happened. In 1945, after the war, what happened to the surviving camp inmates who had taken the pill—the ones who had lived with very low nutrition and whose lives may indeed have been extended because of the lowered metabolic rate?”
“They went to America and Israel,” Max said.
“Possibly POWs were given the pill, too,” Julian said.
“Ah,” Kevin said. “Perhaps some went back to fight the war in other parts of Europe. Asia, even. Meaning, dear Max, that they went all over the world, taking with them the bacteria that activates the retrovirus in our genes.”
Max dropped her head into her hands. It certainly was possible. But probable?
Kevin went on, “It’s only since the fifties that commercial airlines became the more accepted mode of international travel. Travel started to become easier, faster, and more affordable, and as a result—”
“The bacteria moved easier and faster, too,” Julian said, his face now somber.
Kevin nodded with a sigh. “Slowly people started being affected by it. Their dormant ERV was triggered. Over time, peoples’ habits became more sedentary, they ate more. They developed MetS—mild or severe.”
“Habits! Exactly. What about the fast food phenomenon?” Max said. “Maybe fast food, the bane of the US, is now affecting the whole world.”
“I love a devil’s advocate!” Kevin refilled his cup and bit off a chunk of cookie. “Over the years,” Kevin said with his mouth full, “as people’s lives grew more sedentary and their diets grew more and more processed, especially in the US, their bodies—which were fertile ground for MetS already, due to the retrovirus—were very badly affected. In the US, it has reached pandemic proportions. Max, I agree, it’s not all one cause. Samuel is not to blame for the enormity of what this has become. These things go hand in hand. Let’s say Samuel started the fire and modern times and habits fanned it. And so, as prosperity grows, as people become more sedentary and eat less and less healthily, MetS is and will be on the rise. It would have happened anyway, but perhaps not in the pandemic proportions that we see today. The virus has acted like an accelerator that is making the fire burn harder and faster.”
Max didn’t speak. Her eyebrows were still furrowed.
“Remember how bird flu and later swine flu spread from literally one guy to all over the world?” Kevin said.
“The Spanish flu spread like that in 1919,” Julian said. “It was carried back home by soldiers returning from the first World War. Almost 40 percent of the world fell ill. Millions died.”
The three didn’t speak for a few minutes.
“You said groups of people might be immune,” Max said. “Could the groups belong to the same race? It’s possible that some people in Abdul’s tribe are also immune. Which is why some believed in the curse while others lived long lives.”
“Abdul?” Kevin said, puzzled.
Max held up her grandfather’s diary. “Abdul Chapar—the guide who insisted that a part of their tribe had enjoyed longevity because of the pill.”
“It’s certainly possible,” Kevin said. “The bacteria in the pill also lowers metabolic rate, remember. The camp workers and others lived longer because, with lower metabolic rate, they needed less nutrition to survive. In ancient times, nutrition was key. People who had lower metabolic rate and possibly the absence of the ERV lived exceedingly long lives. As long as they ate reasonably healthy food and remained active.”
“What do you think actually happened to the Colossus?” Max asked. “He was imprisoned in his home toward the end.”
“There’s a story I read about a man in ancient Greece—yes, Greece again,” Kevin said. “He became very obese, and morbid obesity as we know it today didn’t exist in those days, at least not in abundance. He was considered so diseased and shameful that he stayed locked inside his home. He was fed through a window. No one really saw him, for he was too self-conscious to show himself. They may have even thought he was contagious. It’s cruel, but there you have it.”
“That might explain the name Colossus!” Julian said. “They probably just didn’t realize that he became a really overweight guy.”
“That would explain the social ostracizing,” Kevin said. “But it’s also possible that he developed diabetes. And as a result, perhaps he developed a gangrenous foot. Or a nasty skin condition that can result from advanced diabetes. Lots of things could have happened. Or maybe he just got very large, like Julian said. Any one of those might frighten others into thinking he was contagious. In someone else it would just be bad luck. In him, they immediately linked it to the pill and the curse it came tainted with. Turns out they were right. Just that the curse was a disease, not some higher power’s whim.”
“But his descendents, the Chapars, seem to be immune, so this guy just got unlucky,” Max said. “Poor man.”
“This may or may not be relevant,” Julian said, “but the Indus civilization lasted from 3300 until 1300 BCE. Their decline began around 1800 BCE. Various reasons were cited—flood and drought being the chief ones. Perhaps this whole business with the Colossus was part of the reason for people leaving, unexplained deaths, and disease. Drought or floods, too, but I wonder if this pill had something to do with the demise or disintegration of these peoples.”
“Could be,” Kevin said.
“Kevin,” Julian went on, “Are any races immune to other diseases? Have there been studies?”
“Genetic immunity isn’t new,” Kevin said. “A small percentage of people descended from Northern Europeans are virtually immune to AIDS. Swedes especially.”
“I had no idea,” Max said.
“Now,” Kevin said cautiously, “the reason all this is so problematic for pharmaceutical companies.”
“I was wondering about that,” Max said. “Why should they be concerned? No one is killing scientists who discovered the HIV thing.”
“Exactly,” Kevin said. “So what do we have here? A disease that is caused by a bacteria and a retrovirus.”
“Meaning?” Max said.
“How do we prevent many bacterial and viral diseases?” Kevin asked.
“By immunization—good heavens, a vaccine!” Max offered.
“A vaccine is possible, as is an anti-retroviral drug,” Kevin said. “Once we find the mechanism to block the enzyme produced by this bacteria, someone could produce a vaccine to prevent MetS.”
“What about those people who already have the disease?” Max said.
“An anti-retroviral drug like the ones used for AIDS could slow down the impact of the virus,” Kevin said. “Good habits can keep the effects of the retrovirus in
check, too.”
“Don’t we need the pill to make this vaccine?” Julian said.
“I don’t think so,” Kevin said. “But we do need the pill. Peer reviews and third party tests are essential for Hiram’s work to be accepted.”
“So if a vaccine happens, would it be given to all babies?” Julian said.
“If it happens, it would be a miracle,” Kevin said. “But yes, I’d say a baby given this vaccine would have increased immunity to MetS.”
“That would mean the slow death of many drugs,” Max said thoughtfully.
Kevin nodded. “Many drugs may become obsolete if we attack MetS at birth or even with a retroviral drug. There would be some demand, but not nearly as much as it is now, and the demand might only decrease over time as immunity increases. But that could take decades to happen.”
“Is that why Papa was killed?” Max asked after a long pause. “It was too big a risk, his bringing this discovery out?”
This was what the whole thing had been about, after all. The research was important, but so was the consequence it had brought upon the man who had made the breakthrough.
Julian and Kevin exchanged a look.
“This cannot just be about Berliner’s drugs becoming obsolete over time,” Julian said. “They can easily make the vaccine or develop a retroviral drug and make millions. They have the knowledge and ample time to do it. MetS won’t disappear overnight. So why are they so keen on hiding this?”
“Why indeed?” Kevin said softly.
“The whistle blower!” Max said suddenly.
“Berliner’s lab discovered that the pill was causing MetS,” Kevin said with an emphatic nod. “They didn’t have the knowledge to come up with the genetic explanation. But they knew enough, and they weren’t given the chance to study it further. That is what the scientist told Hiram.” Kevin pointed to Hiram’s papers. “Labs in those days were gaining access to DNA information. It is possible that they might have eventually made the genetic link Hiram did. Instead, Schultz decided to shut down the lab and cover up its findings.”