Scientists have reportedly discovered that a certain gene from elephants could become a revolutionary cure for cancer.
According to a report by The Telegraph, a team at the University of Chicago discovered what exactly stops cancerous cells from developing in elephants. The endangered animals have the same life span as humans but they rarely develop tumors and cancer.
The team recently figured out that the big mammals actually carry 20 copies of a tumor suppressing gene that humans only have one copy of. The study stated that the gene, TP53, "causes the cells to quickly commit suicide when damaged before they can go on to reproduce and form deadly tumours."
The study authors didn't waste any time in delving right into this possible cure for cancer. When they activated the said gene in mice, the little creatures "developed the same cancer resistance as elephants" giving the researchers hope that the same method could be replicated to prevent the disease in humans.
"These results suggest that an increase in the copy number of TP53 may have played a direct role in the evolution of very large body sizes," Dr. Vincent Lynch, the author of the study, told the publication.
He added that with this study, finding a long-lasting cure for cancer.
"It may be possible to develop a drug that mimics the function of the TP53 gene," he shared. "The next steps are to figure out precisely how these extra copies are working in the cell, and if there are other genes with elephant specific changes in evolved in their cancer resistance."
Meanwhile, Huffington Post reported that Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation (CEC) partnered with pediatric oncologist Dr. Joshua Schiffman from the Primary Children's Hospital and the Huntsman Cancer Institute and the University of Utah to work on a cure for childhood cancer using a "genetic link" that they found in elephants and humans.
Dubbed the "knight gene," it supposedly attacks abnormal cells in the body. This function sounds the same as the TP53 that Dr. Lynch's team discovered in their studies.
"Elephants are the first species found to have 20 copies of a gene which stops cancer growth by spotting when the DNA cells are damaged and preventing them from replicating," The Telegraph said.
Could this "knight gene," which could possibly be the TP53 as well, be the revolutionary cure for cancer that the world has been waiting for?
