{"id":41567,"date":"2023-08-12T06:00:12","date_gmt":"2023-08-12T06:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.cancerresearchuk.org\/?p=26336"},"modified":"2024-11-03T15:12:24","modified_gmt":"2024-11-03T15:12:24","slug":"what-can-elephants-teach-us-about-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/what-can-elephants-teach-us-about-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"What can elephants teach us about cancer?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The fact a species\u2019 cancer risk doesn\u2019t increase with its size is called Peto\u2019s paradox, after <\/span>Professor Sir Richard Peto<\/span><\/a>, one of our researchers, who first laid it out in the 1970s.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

If we can solve the paradox \u2013 and learn how the world\u2019s biggest animals avoid cancer \u2013 <\/span><\/span>we<\/span>\u2018ll<\/span> have a much better idea<\/span> of<\/span> how <\/span>the disease works<\/span>. We<\/span> might <\/span>even <\/span>be able to use some <\/span>of nature\u2019s<\/span> techniques <\/span>to <\/span>improve how we treat cancer <\/span>in humans<\/span>.<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

An anti-cancer defence mechanism<\/h2>\n

Not long after Peto started pondering his paradox, two other Cancer Research UK-funded scientists, Dr Lionel Crawford and Professor Sir David Lane, went fishing for molecules with a monkey virus. They <\/span>hooked a tiny protein<\/span><\/a> we now call p53. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t clear straight away, but that was the first time anyone had found a protein our body uses to prevent cancer. <\/span><\/p>\n

p53 is a tumour suppressor. It stops damaged cells from copying themselves so they can be repaired, and, if they can\u2019t, it causes them to die, meaning DNA damage can\u2019t build up into cancer. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Lane nicknamed it the \u2018guardian of the genome\u2019. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/h3>\n
\n

<\/h2>\n

Elephants\u2019 extra anti-cancer genes<\/h2>\n

Problems with p53 are linked to most adult cancers. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

The gene responsible for making p53 is called TP53. Humans have one copy of it (containing two versions) in every cell. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s so important for protecting us from cancer that people born with only one functioning version of TP53 (a condition called Li-Fraumeni Syndrome) have been reported to have a lifetime cancer risk of more than 70%.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Every cell in an African elephant contains <\/span>20 copies (or 40 versions) <\/span><\/a>of TP53<\/span><\/a>. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

They don\u2019t all work the same way. But with 38 extra versions of the gene on the job, elephant cells are much more vigilant about DNA damage. They will self-destruct to prevent mutations that our cells won\u2019t even respond to. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that all, or even most, of those changes would lead to cancer. With so many chances for things to go wrong, though, elephant cells shoot first and ask questions later.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Elephant TP53 seems to act that way wherever you put it. <\/span>Lab studies have shown<\/span><\/a> that it presses the self-destruct button when introduced to human cancer cells, too. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

A <\/span><\/span>study last year<\/span><\/span><\/a> by <\/span>a team of <\/span>researchers <\/span>from across <\/span>Europe (including the Chairman of Save the Elephants<\/a>, Professor Fritz Vollrath) <\/span><\/span>helped explain how. T<\/span>here<\/span> are <\/span>important <\/span>differences<\/span> between each <\/span>copy<\/span> of <\/span>elephant <\/span>TP53<\/span>. <\/span>The<\/span>y<\/span> all have their <\/span>own <\/span>way<\/span>s<\/span> of interacting with other proteins in the cell, making it <\/span>harder for cancers to disable <\/span>enough of them to escape detection<\/span>.<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

By comparing exactly how these different copies of TP53 work, the researchers hope to learn more about how our own bodies fight cancer. They\u2019ve also suggested that supporting the TP53 in our cells<\/a> \u2013 <\/em>mimicking elephants\u2019 different copies of the gene \u2013 <\/em> could be a new model for cancer medicine.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/h3>\n

Elephants and Cancer Research UK<\/em><\/h3>\n

Lane, our former chief scientist, is now the head of Cancer Grand Challenges,<\/a> the global funding initiative we co-founded with the National Cancer Institute in the US. He was also the second recipient of the Cancer Research UK Lifetime Achievement Award.  <\/em><\/p>\n

Peto, one of the leading experts in cancer patterns around the world, was the first.  <\/em><\/p>\n

\n

<\/h2>\n

A trunk full of tricks<\/h2>\n

And then there\u2019s <\/span>the zombie gene<\/span><\/a>.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Elephants evolved from much smaller ancestors and acquired extra copies (or retrogenes) of TP53 as they grew. Some scientists think these may have helped elephants reach the size they are today.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Somewhere in their evolutionary history, elephants also gained extra copies of another tumour suppressor gene: LIF, which works in concert with TP53. Scientists have also found extra LIF genes in elephants\u2019 closest cousins: slow-swimming manatees (also known as sea cows) and short, stout balls of fur called hyraxes, which live on mountains and in trees. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fact a species\u2019 cancer risk doesn\u2019t increase with its size is called Peto\u2019s paradox, after Professor Sir Richard Peto, one of our researchers, who first laid it out in the 1970s.  If we can solve the paradox \u2013 and learn how the world\u2019s biggest animals avoid cancer \u2013 we\u2018ll have a much better idea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41567"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42864,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41567\/revisions\/42864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}