Why do bats (almost) not get cancer?

All organisms made up of more than one cell, such as plants and animals, face a significant challenge: how to ensure their cells always act in a coordinated manner, prioritizing the common good. In biology, anarchy is dangerous, as demonstrated by one of the diseases with the greatest social impact even today: cancer. The disease begins precisely when the accumulated damage a cell has sustained forces it to behave selfishly and disorganized. It is not surprising, then, that evolution has found several ways to keep this threat under control, preventing organisms from dying of cancer before they have a chance to reproduce and ensuring the survival of their offspring.

These protective systems that all animals have follow two common principles: attempting to repair the damage to cells that are in danger of becoming malignant, or, if that's not possible, removing them. However, this can be achieved in various ways and with varying degrees of effectiveness. Species with a longer average life expectancy tend to be the best at nipping the needle on cancer: they'll take care of themselves enough, because the risk of developing it progressively increases with age. Humans are fortunate in this regard, having been fairly well protected against the disease for more than six decades. But some have managed to do better, such as elephants or whales, which, despite being made up of many more cells than we are, are quite "immune" to tumors.

The tricks of some animals

In recent years we have discovered that these animals use different tricks. The elephants, For example, they have extra copies of a gene called p53, which is the most effective cellular "policeman" of all. With this extra load of p53, fewer dangerous cells escape surveillance. The whales, On the contrary, they have developed more effective damage control and repair mechanisms. Either way, the result is the same: a reduction in the number of uncontrolled cells that can become cancerous.

A study by Dr. Vera Gorbunova's team at the University of Rochester in the United States, published in Nature Communications, This has led to bats being added to the list of beings that have developed particularly effective ways of stopping cancer. Some species of these flying mammals can live to be over 40 years old, a disproportionately high number for such a small animal that, if it were like its close relatives, should live ten times less. This led researchers to believe they had a good mechanism for stopping tumors.

Analyzing their genome, they discovered a system with three separate fronts. On the one hand, like elephants, bats have more p53 than usual. But, to compensate, they also produce more of an enzyme called telomerase, which allows cells to survive and continue proliferating. This calculated balance of opposing forces results in the elimination of the most dangerous cells with fewer side effects. The third leg is an immune system that is more effective at attacking bad cells without creating inflammation or other undesirable effects.

These studies, which reveal the strategies certain animals have developed to prevent cancer, are important beyond mere curiosity. On the one hand, they demonstrate that there are more effective ways than ours to prevent the uncontrolled proliferation of damaged cells. On the other hand, they give us clues about possible new therapeutic strategies.

New therapeutic strategies

During the first decades of the fight against cancer, several compounds were discovered that effectively killed malignant cells but also significantly affected normal cells. Beginning at the beginning of this century, targeted therapies emerged, which attacked targets unique to problematic cells and were therefore more effective and selective. Then came drugs that don't directly target the cells in question, but instead seek to change the environment in which they grow to make it more difficult for them to survive. Perhaps the next step would be to focus on an earlier stage, the moment when a cell begins to accumulate too much damage to continue functioning properly.

If we find strategies that, using what we learn from these cancer-resistant organisms, allow us to repair or destroy them more effectively, the curative potential would be enormous, because the earlier we act on cancer, the better our chances of survival. Perhaps in the future we'll regularly take pills to strengthen our defenses against malignant cells (drugs to produce more p53, for example, are already being studied) and we'll be able to nip the problem in the bud. For now, this is still science fiction, but the fact that, thanks to studies on these special animals, we're even considering it is already a step forward.