Revealed: How Elephants Check Cancer From Taking Hold
Do elephants hold the key to cancer prevention? Scientists, who analyzed the pachyderm's genome, certainly think so.
In a study published in The Journal of American Medical Association, researchers sought to explain why elephants rarely get cancer. The paper states that multiple copies of the gene TP53 which codes for tumor-suppression protein is the reason. Compared to one copy of the gene in humans, elephants have 20 copies.
According to Arizona State University News, Carlo Maley, an evolutionary biologist at the university discovered that elephants had multiple copes of the gene. Maley shared his findings with Joshua Schiffman of University Utah. Maley and Schiffman along with other researchers then set about to determine exactly how multiple copies of TP53 protect the elephant.
They then subjected human and elephant cells in the lab in radiation, expecting to see human cells die before elephant cells did. To their surprise, they found elephant cells died at a faster rate, LA Times reports.
It then dawned that the extra copies of TP53 may be accelerating death of damaged cells to prevent a mutation from affecting many cells, effectively checking cancer.
"Compared with human cells, elephant cells demonstrated increased apoptotic response following DNA damage. These findings, if replicated, could represent an evolutionary-based approach for understanding mechanisms related to cancer suppression," researchers wrote.
Cancer deaths represent less four percent of elephant deaths, defying the common understanding that bigger animals with more cells are more prone to the disease.
