Can Disease-Infested Cave-Dwelling Creatures of the Night Unlock the Cure for Cancer?

They have been much maligned due to their links to the Covid pandemic, but bats may hold the secret to curing cancer.

A new study found that some species contain more than 50 unique genes that may make them immune to tumors, even though they live extraordinarily long lives.

Bats have baffled scientists for years because of their unique ability to live normally with viruses that kill or sicken most other mammals (and people).

However, this ability to tolerate viruses put them at the center of questions about the origin of Covid, which is believed to have emerged in animals.

Researchers hope that by developing a better understanding of their miraculous immune systems, they can develop ways to prevent and treat cancer in people.

Armin Scheben, a postdoctoral fellow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York and lead author of the study, told DailyMail.com: “The DNA of bats harbors anti-cancer genes that allow them to resist cancer,” Scheben said.

‘Our research identifies several genes capable of suppressing tumors that have acquired genetic changes in bats, which we believe increases the ability of bats to resist cancer better than other mammals, including humans.

“Our findings are a first step toward developing bat-inspired anticancer therapies to prevent and treat cancer in humans.”

Many wild animals can develop cancerbut since age is a risk factor, most do not survive long enough to suffer from it.

Bats live long lives (some the human equivalent of 200 years) and yet they rarely get cancer.

In the latest study, researchers analyzed the full set of genes from two bat species: the Jamaican fruit bat and the Mesoamerican mustached bat.

They compared the genomic analysis with that of other mammals.

They found genetic adaptations in 46 cancer-related proteins that previous researchers had already determined suppressed cancer. They also found genetic adaptations in six proteins related to DNA repair.

“What we wanted to do is expand our understanding of how certain species are more resistant to cancer than humans and how those species also age, in general, more slowly than other mammals like humans,” explained researcher Richard McCombie, one of the authors of the article. the authors told DailyMail.com.

The article was published in Genome biology and evolution.

According to the study, bats could be responsible for the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, also known as Covid-19, due to the detection of closely related viruses in wild bats.

Bats are recognized for their ability to harbor and survive viruses, such as SARS-CoV-2, their longevity and their low rates of cancer, according to the study, making them interesting for researchers who want to find implications for humans. and other mammals.

Scheben noted that climate change can accelerate the transmission of infections from bats to humans, so understanding how bats can tolerate infections can help researchers find treatments that mimic their antiviral abilities.

“Understanding how these genes work may drive future development of therapies that prevent or cure human diseases, for example by dampening exaggerated inflammatory reactions that lead to severe outcomes in human infections as we see with Covid-19,” Scheben said.

“By generating these new bat genomes and comparing them with other mammals, we continue to find extraordinary new adaptations in antiviral and anticancer genes,” said Armin Scheben, lead author of the paper, in Press release.