T. adhaerens is one of the three species of Placozoa. Researchers hope investigations of such cancer-suppressing mechanisms across the tree of life may advance new methods of cancer prevention and therapy.
A simple, marine-dwelling creature known as Trichoplax adhaerens has some remarkable properties. The organisms can tolerate high levels of radiation that would kill most other forms of life. T. adhaerens has an intriguing ability to resist cancer.
In a new study, Angelo Fortunato and his colleagues describe T. adhaerens' unusual behavior, including its ability to repair its DNA even after significant radiation damage.
Scientific investigations of natural cancer suppression mechanisms across life have been advanced by the findings. Insights gleaned from these evolutionary adaptations may be used to develop new and more effective therapies for this leading killer. Over 600,000 people died from cancer in the US last year.
The new study shows that the unusual microorganism can be cultured in the lab. This makes T. adhaerens an attractive model organisms, which will allow researchers to home in on fundamental processes of radiation tolerance as well as the underlying mechanisms guiding DNA repair, programmed cell death and other natural means of cancer resistance.
The Arizona Cancer Evolution Center and the Biodesign Center for Biocomputing, Security and Society are at Arizona State University. He is a researcher in the school.
Carlo Maley is a researcher in the Biodesign Center for Biocomputing, Security and Society and the Center for Mechanisms of Evolution at Arizona State University. The Arizona Cancer Evolution Center is headed by him.
The current issue of the journal contains research findings.
Nature's software can be hacked.
The development of cancer can be seen as a form of evolution. As with natural selection and the process of changing the environment, these processes can provide cancer cells with a suite of tools, enabling them to flourish, evade the body's immune system, and spread to other areas.
Cancer is a formidable foe. Conventional treatments, including radiation and chemotherapy, favor those that help cancer gain a foothold, while eliminating competing cells, often giving cancer free reign to pursue its path of destruction.
Cancer is an important problem for multicellular life. Heritable genetic changes can be caused by errors in cell division and exposure to radiation.
Nature's cancer-fighting methods.
Nature has had to contend with cells that reject multicellularity demands since the arrival of multicellular life over 3 billion years ago. The rogue cells take resources from the body for themselves. This is not normal.
The disease does not affect everyone equally. Some organisms escape with low cancer rates, while others are very cancer prone. The battle to understand the disease and better manage it has become a major area of research in the battle to uncover the mysteries of the tree of life.
Some species have been able to suppress cancer. They usually do this by trying to prevent the emergence of new genes, improving the fidelity of copying mechanisms, or repairing damaged genes.
Cancer-related genes can come into play. TP53 can act to repair damaged DNA. If the sequence can't be repaired, the gene instructs the cell to kill itself, preventing it from being duplicated in subsequent generations. Elephants, which would be prone to cancer due to their size and longevity, carry multiple copies of TP53 and have low rates of cancer.
Seafaring is a mystery.
T. adhaerens is the simplest multicellular creature ever found. It is thought to have been different from other animals 800 million years ago. It was rediscovered in 1969 and is native to the Red Sea.
The animal exhibits complex social behavior, including cooperative feeding, despite its lack of muscle tissue, nervous systems or other vital organs.
The life cycle of T. adhaerens is involved. In laboratory cell cultures, the organisms can reproduce asexually, but may have the ability to reproduce in the wild. T. adhaerens has a high cell turnover rate and can live for a long time. The placozoans like T. adhaerens are outliers. No member of this species has ever been diagnosed with cancer. The new study explores the organisms' heightened resistance to high level radiation and possible mechanisms of cancer suppression.
Kicking out cancer.
T. adhaerens' mode of reproduction involves changing existing cells into new ones. This could leave animals vulnerable to cancer, which could potentially spread through a population. This may be the reason the organisms evolved a way of expelling pre-malignant cells.
It's possible that cell lysis is a means of cancer suppression in humans. Extruding may be involved in ridding the body of cancer growths in the skin and gut.
The mechanism of cancer suppression in simple organisms like T. adhaerens could be a problem in humans if the cells are not viable in the bloodstream.
T. adhaerens can fully recover from radiation exposure. They use a combination of strategies. When organisms are exposed to high levels of X-rays, they ramp up the expression of genes that are involved in the repair of the DNA.
Some T. adhaerens were shown to tolerate a lot of radiation. Gray units are a measure of ionizing radiation. The damage to cells caused by 3-7 Gy of radiation is severe. Humans are usually fatal to each other with a dose of 6 Gy.
The animal's powers of DNA repair enabled the organisms to recover from the assault. After 30 days of exposure to the highest dose of radiation, some individuals were able to repopulate the culture. A number of genes were overexpressed in T. adhaerens.
T. adhaerens engage in continual bodily renewal, keeping them cancer-free, through a combination of aggressive DNA repair and ejection of damaged cells. New methods of preventing and treating the disease in humans may be spurred by understanding these mechanisms. This tiny creature is a treasure chest of information because genes likely play a role in its resistance to cancer.
The remarkable radiation resistance of Trichoplax adhaerens is underpinned by the regulation of DNA repair genes. There is a journal called "pbio.3001471".
The journal contains information about biology.
Microorganism sheds new light on cancer resistance.
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