Researchers Find a Cancer Preventing Gene in Naked Mole Rats

In spite of a thirty years life duration which enables the body`s cell to metamorphose into cancerous one, a species of rodent entitled naked mole rats has never presented such conditions. Undergoing a recent investigation, the scientists from the University of Rochester may have stumbled upon the reason for which these rodents do not develop malignant tumors. The investigation on this matter was financed by the National Institutes of Health and the Ellison Medical Foundation.

Their discoveries are released in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The recent study presents the way the cells of the naked mole rats generate a gene entitled p16 which triggers a claustrophobic characteristic. In turn this phobic state brings to a stop the multiplication of the cells in the case a big number of them becomes crowded. This means that the process impedes the abnormal growth even before it could commence. The effects of the p16 gene are so strong that at the time the scientists triggered mutations in the cell in order to develop a tumor, the growth of the cells did not transform very much. This is a very important discovery due to the fact that when applied on normal mice cells, the mutations would lead to malignant tumors creation.

Vera Gorbunova from the University of Rochester is the leading researcher of this investigation. The associate professor states that her team believes that they have discovered the reason for which the naked mole rats do not develop malignant tumors and it came as a shock to them. The implications of their discovery are many and important, but the speculations of stimulating the p16 gene in the case of human beings are just a matter of time and research. It this process could be accomplished in the case of people, this would represent the means to stop cancer evolution even before it can be triggered by various factors.

This species of rodents look rather strange; they have an unpleasant appearance because they have no hair covering their body and they live underground forming naked mole rats communities. In comparison to other mammals, the naked mole rats gatherings comprise queens and workers which is an odd feature due to the fact that this hierarchy is commonly found in bees. The rodents have a life span of approximately thirty years, a figure which is very big compared to the normal lifespan of tiny rats.

Even during the investigation a high number of naked mole rates were observed, the team of scientists did not manage to induce or find any animal presenting cancer tumors. A curiosity which also arises on these mammals` behalf is the fact that they grow older at a faster pace in the near end of their lives, whereas they age just a bit during their normal lifespan.

Vera Gorbunova, accompanied by a fellow researcher Andrei Seluanov who is a professor of biology within the University of Rochester, underwent an investigation which lasted for three years. During their research, the two scientists strived to study naked mole rats from all over the world in order to better understand the similarities of the species and what differentiated each group coming from different regions from one another. Moreover, the researchers wanted to acquire more information on how these differences and similarities were related to the naked mole rats ability to not develop cancer.

In the year 2006, Vera Gorbunova found out that an enzyme which can trigger a longer lifespan of the cells which is entitled telomerase has an enhanced activity in the case of small rats but not in larger ones. The telomerase enzyme is also a factor which can enhance malignant tumors` rate.

Prior to the investigation of Gorbunova and Seluanov, the existing idea was that any animal which had a lifetime span similar to the human beings` one had to stop or diminish the activity of the cells` telomerase in order to prevent malignant tumors from developing. This enzyme aids the cells in their reproducing stage and being well-known that cancer is the abnormal growth and multiplication of cells, any animal that could live for seventy years presented a high predisposition for developing cancer. The life span of a mouse is decreased due to natural agents like, for example, predators. This is why past wisdom stated that mice could manage a small risk for developing malignant tumors in order to enable the telomerase`s action and heal in at a faster pace.

Even though these beliefs were shattered by this new investigation, a new vagueness appeared. What is the case of animals that live for more than 24 years, like the well-known grey squirrel, for example? Considering the amplitude of the telomerase expression in these mammals due to a long time span, why do not they develop malignant tumors?

Vera Gorbunova strived to provide answers to these questions and in the year 2008 she discovered that the small rodents which enjoyed a longer lifetime span had evolved so much that their organism developed a method of counteracting cancer. This interesting mechanism differs a lot from other large animals and human beings` way to fight naturally against cancer.

At that specific moment, the assistant professor did not manage to discover which the cancer prevention mechanism in the naked mole rates was. As she explains past research was not able to identify this anti-malignant tumors mechanism due to the fact that scientists used only common mice and human beings` samples in their clinical and laboratory tests. The mouse is a mammal that has a short life span and people have large bodies. This is why the investigators found out that the anti-cancer mechanism is present only in the case of mammals that have a long life span and are very small.

By conducting this new investigation, Vera Gorbunova thinks she has discovered the first and main reason for which the naked mole rodents do not develop malignant tumors. It seems that this anti-cancer mechanism comprises a gene with a sort of early signal of attention that the mammal expresses in its body cells.

In the moment the team of researchers started to observe the cells coming from naked mole rats, they were shocked to discover just how hard it was for them to grow cells in the laboratory. The in vitro cells just stopped multiplying at the moment when they reached a specific number in a certain location. Human cells, for example, refused to replicate when they grew great in number, but in the case of the naked mole rodents this stopping of cell multiplication was triggered in an earlier stage compared to human beings and large mammals.

As the leading investigator explains cancer represents an abnormal multiplication of the body`s cells. But her team discovered that the process which triggered cancer development was also the factor which prevented the malignant tumors` formation in the naked mole rats.

Similar to human beings and a great number of animals, the naked mole rats comprise a gene entitled p27 which has the role to stop the dense growth of cells. However, the latter also utilize the p16 gene as an early warning signal. It has been shown that cells find ways to avoid the activity of the p27 gene, but the tiny hairless rodents enjoy double means of stalling and stopping the abnormal cellular growth.

As the leading author of the study states the team thinks that another protection layer produced by the action of these two genes (p16 and p27) triggers the ability of the naked mole rats to prevent malignant tumor appearance in their organism.

The two investigators plan to investigate more this issue and take a closer look at the genetic features of the naked hairless rodents in order to observe if their resistance to malignant tumors` development could be used in the case of human beings.