How Elephants Check Cancer From Taking Hold

Elephants face better odds because they receive 20 pairs of those same TP53 genes.

TP53 plays a vital role in preventing cancer, said Schiffman, who describes it as the “guardian of the genome”, scanning cells for genetic mistakes and destroying ones that can’t be fixed.

While the research won’t lead to any immediate treatment for humans, progress against cancer can come “from unexpected directions”, said Dr. Ted Gansler of the American Cancer Society. However, animals do possess their own “smoke alarms”, which can detect these damages and result in killing or repairing of the cell. This effectively battles and mostly succeeds in stopping cancerous cells from dividing.

For this latest study, the team set out to learn more about the disparities in cancer mortality rates across different mammals, with a specific focus on elephants, and to shed light on possible mechanisms that induce cancer resistance in different species. This sparked his attention even further, as his patients include children with incomplete p53 genes due to a condition called Li-Fraumeni syndrome. The researchers compared the radiated cells from elephants, healthy humans and people with Li-Fraumeni Syndrome and found that elephant cells self-destruct at double the rate of human cells and five times the rate of Li-Fraumeni cells. And so the scientists extracted white blood cells from the pachyderms and exposed them to ionizing radiation and doxorubicin, or the two agents which cause damage to DNA.

Pediatric oncologist Dr. Joshua Schiffman, a part of the team that revealed the above information, said that if all factors are considered it would have been logical if cancer was extremely common among the elephants.

“After this time, humans no longer directly pass on their genes to the next generation and the human cancer rate dramatically increases at this time until old age,” Schiffman said, adding that p53 function begins a steady decline as well.

The lecture speaker mentioned that elephants seemed to have extra copies of the p53 gene.

“Twenty years ago, we founded the Ringling Bros”. Center for Elephant Conservation for the purposes of collecting and analyzing elephant blood.

“The important suggestion of this study is that additional copies of TP53 are enough to prevent elephants from getting cancer”, said Graham, who was not involved in the JAMA study.

In order to find further details about the topic, Schiffman with his team embarked on a study to analyse the cells of elephants. This partly explains why we are more vulnerable to cancer, they think.

Elephants aren’t the only large animals to have evolved ways to defeat cancer. Schiffman plans to use what he’s learned in elephants as a strategy for developing novel cancer-fighting therapies.

A study conducted by researchers at the University of Utah, Arizona State University and the Huntsman Cancer Institute may have just figured it out. Also contributing to the research was Eric Peterson, elephant manager at Utah’s Hogle Zoo.

“Participating in the research is not only wonderful but a win-win for humans and elephants”, said Peterson. “If elephants can hold the key to unlocking a few of the mysteries of cancer, then we will see an increased awareness of the plight of elephants worldwide”.

Elephant populations, many of which are at risk from poachers, could also benefit from research. While humans, on the other hand, have been left so vulnerable.