

Naked mole-rat may hold the clue to beating cancer - imdsm
http://metro.co.uk/2013/06/19/naked-mole-rat-may-hold-the-clue-to-beating-cancer-3848778/

======
andyjohnson0
metro.co.uk is the web site of a free commuter newspaper handled out in some
cities in the UK. It probably wouldn't be my first choice for science news.

Dr Seluanov's bio [1] links to a number of papers, most of which appear to be
cancer-related. There is a pubmed abstract and full text available for
"Hypersensitivity to contact inhibition provides a clue to cancer resistance
of naked mole-rat." [2].

Also the NYT has an article [3].

[1]
[http://www.rochester.edu/College/BIO/professors/seluanov](http://www.rochester.edu/College/BIO/professors/seluanov)

[2]
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19858485](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19858485)

[3] [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/science/a-homely-rodent-
ma...](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/science/a-homely-rodent-may-hold-
cancer-fighting-clues.html?_r=0)

~~~
masklinn
As usual, Ed Yong has a good overview on NERS:
[http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/19/why-
naked...](http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/19/why-naked-mole-
rats-dont-get-cancer/)

edit: I see the NYT article is by Carl Zimmer, so I can only recommend though
I've yet to read it.

Although

> Hyaluronan probably isn’t the only way to fight off cancer. Blind mole rats
> (which, despite their name, are not close relatives of naked mole rats)
> rarely get cancer either. But the research Dr. Gorbunova and Dr. Seluanov
> have conducted on those rodents suggests that they fight cancer by sending a
> different signal to fast-growing cells, causing them to commit suicide.

Dan Engber's wonderful 2011 Slate piece[0], linked by Yong, notes naked mole
rats have perfectly functioning apoptosis processes:

> A naked mole rat cell, they argued, is hypersensitive to crowds: The minute
> one of its cytoplasmic arms brushes up against a stranger, it stops
> dividing. A cell could be induced to overcome its shyness with the help of
> some cancer-causing proteins, and so emboldened it would grow out of
> control, like a tumor. But even then, a second line of defense would be
> activated: The cell would apoptose, or self-destruct.

it's not clear whether Zimmer is talking about somehow extra-active apoptosis
in blind mole rats, does anybody have precisions?

[0]
[http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/the_mouse_t...](http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/the_mouse_trap/2011/11/naked_mole_rats_can_they_help_us_cure_cancer_.html)

------
pvaldes
Blind mole rats live in the deserts of Africa, as burrowers, never expose
themselves to the sun.

They live unique lives, exactly like mammalian termites, with a queen mother
and a lot of pheromones. Most animals never have sex, produce milk or get
pregnant in its entire life.

This animals starve, CAN adapt its body temperature to the temperature of it
surroundings (i.e like reptiles do), have a slow metabolism, low respiratory
rates...

And live in a clean environment free from chemicals... How much plastics,
cancerous substances and pesticides can you find in a desert of Africa?... not
much, I guess.

So... big surprise... they live much longer lives that rats and its tumorous
cells are as lazy growing as the rest of its metabolism

The clue to beat cancer revealed by mole rats!:

 _Don 't expose yourself to all that causes cancer, like hight metabolism
rates, cancerous substances, sun rays, sexually transmitted viruses..._

~~~
jtanner
In the article they mention:

Experiments show that when HMW-HA is removed from the creature’s cells, they
become susceptible to cancer, suggesting it plays a role in making the rodent
‘cancer-proof’.

~~~
pvaldes
And this is a good point, but I wish to add some crazy ideas

Maybe the absence of HMW-HA is boosting the metabolism in this rodents? what
if those animals living in low oxigen habitats could exchange more or less
oxigen by its skins HMW-HA mediated? more oxigen, more metabolic rates, more
sun exposition in captive animals... cancer appears?.

Just wild speculation about a very interesting discovery; I'm not saying that
this is the role of HMW-HA, I will be really very happy with the idea of a
safer replacement for chemotherapy, but I wish to read studies about other
possible reasons for the development of a cancer-proof system in an animal
living in an apparently "not cancer prone" environment. And I'd like a lot
also to have data about cancer rates in queens/kings and the other animals.
There are different rates?, the same probability of having cancer in both
groups?

------
bsaul
could we stop with the "we may have found something that will cure cancer /
aids vaccine / cure alzeimer " news ? i know, we're scientists, we're supposed
to believe in scientifical progress. But after hearing those kind of news for
the last twenty years, i feel like we should start speaking about cures only
once at leat one human beeing was cured...

~~~
Samuel_Michon
Well, bad journalism is more common than good journalism. Tom Scott proposed
for many newspaper articles to have warning labels. In this case, the label
would read: ‘WARNING: Journalist does not understand the subject they are
writing about.’

[http://www.tomscott.com/warnings/](http://www.tomscott.com/warnings/)

------
inthewind
Surprised to hear that they can live for 30 years. Must be the tuberous diet!

See also:

[http://www.nature.com/news/simple-molecule-prevents-mole-
rat...](http://www.nature.com/news/simple-molecule-prevents-mole-rats-from-
getting-cancer-1.13236)

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22961694](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22961694)

[http://www.damninteresting.com/the-mole-rat-
prophecies/](http://www.damninteresting.com/the-mole-rat-prophecies/)

~~~
kiba
_These factors mean the mortality of naked mole rats does not appear to
increase with age, allowing them to evolve genes for longevity, Prof
Buffenstein told the BBC._

Does that mean that they can live forever barring physical trauma?

~~~
flog
I think that's true for some jellyfish and lobsters too

~~~
andyjohnson0
For lobsters, that's still a matter for debate. See [1] and [2].

Some animals just do live a long time though. A clam believed to be 405 years
old was found in waters off Iceland in 2007 [3]. I'm not a marine biologist,
but I suspect that an absence of predators may be relevant.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobster#Longevity](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobster#Longevity)

[2] [http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/8520/under-
the-r...](http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/8520/under-the-right-
circumstances-can-lobsters-live-indefinitely)

[3] [http://phys.org/news112870855.html](http://phys.org/news112870855.html)

------
swombat
Unfortunately, [http://www.xkcd.com/1217/](http://www.xkcd.com/1217/) comes to
mind...

~~~
masklinn
Doesn't apply here since it's observed in-vivo and hyaluronan had already been
linked to cancer:

> In the early days of hyaluronan research, scientists were confused by the
> fact that the molecule seemed to both prevent and cause cancer (the Daily
> Mail would have loved it).

> Since then, we’ve discovered that the sugar’s size is responsible for its
> dual nature. Bryan Toole from the Medical University of South Carolina, who
> studies hyaluronan, says that high concentrations of the large versions can
> stop cells from turning cancerous, while smaller versions can actually
> promote cancer. In a similar way, the large forms tamp down inflammation
> while the small ones exacerbate it, which may relevant to cancer since
> inflammation is tied to several tumours.

finally, as far as I understand long hyaluronan doesn't kill cancer, it
prevents cancerous growth.

------
salimmadjd
I wonder if anyone bottles this compound they'd be able to sell it in china
given the cultural health interest in animal parts there.

~~~
masklinn
You have to inject it since it's part of the extracellular matrix. And the
compound (Hyaluronan) is naturally synthesized by your body (or you'd be
dead), it seems the anti-cancer properties of naked mole rat hyaluronan comes
from it being much longer than it usually is in humans (the formula is
(C14H21NO11)n).

IIRC hyaluronan is already used in cosmetics/skin care to "fill out" wrinkles
or lips.

------
lignuist
Images might be NSFW.

