ADS
Scientists have made a 'potentially life-changing' breakthrough in the search for a cure to cancer.Researchers believe that the cells of a cancer-immune rodent could hold the key to stopping the disease that kills eight million people worldwide each year.
A team, which spent 16 years studying blind mole rats and naked mole rats, have said that harvesting a substance secreted by their cells and making it digestible can destroy cancer in humans and other mammals.
Scientists believe a substance secreted from the cells of mole rats can destroy cancer in humans
In 16 years of research, the scientific team never located a cancerous tumour on the rats, which outlive other rodents by at least 20 years.
The team discovered that the fact the rats live mostly underground has led to an evolution of their metabolism.
For their research, scientists tested ordinary rodents against the underground rats with potent carcinogens. While the ordinary mice and rats developed tumours, none were found in their underground cousins.
An Israeli research team believe cells from blind mole rats and naked mole rats could hold the key to destroying the disease, which kills eight million people worldwide each year
They concluded that the mole rats are ‘not only resistant to spontaneous cancer but also to experimentally induced cancer’.
Published in BMC Biology, they said: ‘Exploring the molecular mechanisms allowing mole rats to survive in extreme environments and to escape cancer as well as to kill homologous and heterologous cancer cells may hold the key for understanding the molecular nature of host resistance to cancer and identify new anti-cancer strategies for treating humans.’
According to the Express, cancer care specialist Professor Sam Ahmedzai hailed an ‘exciting new phase of research’, adding that it could lead to ‘potentially life-saving treatment’.
ADS
No comments:
Post a Comment