At Breaking Cancer News, we’re always on the lookout for cancer stories that are a little outside the box. After all, the most innovative treatments and technologies are rarely found “inside the box.” Outside the box seems to be where the action is.
We’ve covered an AI solution initially designed for croissants and bear claws that is now being used to detect cancer, engineering human-like tumors in fruit flies, and liquid biopsy for dogs.
But today we bring you a story that’s truly outside the box…even by our standards. A story on worms. More specifically, how worms in a certain area may impact human cancer research based on what we can learn from their genetic mutations and even their [ahem] sex lives.
Here we’ll pause to allow you, dear reader, to check your calendar and confirm that today is in fact, not the first of April. This is real news.
So, let’s dig in.
The Worms
As you’ve likely gathered, these are no ordinary worms. The worms in question are called nematodes, tiny worms with a simple genetic makeup.
Recently, researchers at New York University analyzed 15 worms of a nematode species called Oscheius tipulae (O. tipulae) and discovered that the nematodes near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant – the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history – were largely unaffected by the radiation exposure. Rather, the worms mutated and became more resilient.
In the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), NYU scientists concluded that there were “no detectable changes to the high-radiation animals’ genomes broadly.”
Ideal Candidates
The worms in the study are not only remarkable in that they were unaffected by the fallout of the Chernobyl disaster, their ability to rapidly reproduce also made them ideal for the study, as researchers could test their hypotheses related to DNA damage across multiple generations.
“These worms live everywhere, and they live quickly, so they go through dozens of generations of evolution while a typical vertebrate is still putting on its shoes,” said Matthew Rockman, a professor of biology at NYU and the study’s senior author, in a press release.
Believe it or not, this is not the first study to touch on the sex lives of worms in the Chernobyl area.
In 2003, Ukrainian scientists studied three species of worms in a lake near Chernobyl. They discovered that two of the species actually switched from asexual to sexual reproduction and began procreating with one another. The researchers believe the worms made the switch – which some worms are capable of doing – in an attempt to protect themselves from radiation.
The Connection to Cancer
The results of the NYU study offer clues into how, “DNA repair can vary from individual to individual—and despite the genetic simplicity of O. tipulae, could lead to a better understanding of natural variation in humans.”
Insight into the response to DNA damage within a given species could be invaluable in cancer research in order to understand why certain people with a genetic predisposition to cancer develop the disease, while others do not.
“Now that we know which strains of O. tipulae are more sensitive or more tolerant to DNA damage, we can use these strains to study why different individuals are more likely than others to suffer the effects of carcinogens,” said Sophia Tintori, a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Biology at NYU and the first author of the study. “Thinking about how individuals respond differently to DNA-damaging agents in the environment is something that will help us have a clear vision of our own risk factors.”
Under the category of “unexpected tools in the fight against cancer,” we now submit, worms. Who knew?
