Bats Could Be Key to Curing Cancer; Mammal Has Anticancer Genes, Proteins Link to DNA Repair

Bats could be our most potent enemy or ally in the medical field. A new study has found that the said mammals could hold the answer to curing cancer.

Bats For Anticancer

Bats have extended lifespans, with some similar to 200 years in humans. Additionally, only a very few develop cancer. The Mesoamerican mustached and Jamaican fruit bats were subjected to a recent study. Their genetic analysis was examined and compared to other mammals.

The researchers discovered genetic modifications in 46 cancer-related proteins that were known to inhibit the disease. Additionally, they found genetic adaptations in six proteins related to DNA repair in bats.

According to Armin Scheben, a postdoctoral fellow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York and the study's principal author, bats' DNA contains anticancer genes that allow them to fend against cancer. As a result of genetic modifications acquired by bats, which are identified in the research, Scheben said they were convinced that bats are better able to resist cancer than other mammals, including humans. He added that their findings mark a critical first step in developing therapies that target human cancer and are inspired by bats.

Richard McCombie, a researcher and one of the authors, explained that they want to learn more about how certain species are more cancer-resistant than humans and how they age slower than us.

According to the study, since similarly related viruses have been found in wild bats, it is possible that bats are to blame for the spread of SARS-CoV-2, also known as COVID-19. Bats are attractive to researchers looking for implications for humans and other mammals because of their lifespan, capacity to host and survive viruses like SARS-CoV-2, and low cancer rates.

In the future, developing therapies to prevent or treat human disease may be aided by knowledge of how these genes function. For instance, suppressing the inflammatory overreactions that result in poor outcomes in human infections, as we see with COVID-19, is one way to do this, per Scheben.

Virus From Bats Deadliest To Humans

Compared to viruses from other mammal or avian species, zoonotic viruses originating from bat hosts have a higher case-fatality rate. According to Cara Brook, an assistant professor of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago and the paper's principal author, these include SARS and MERS coronaviruses, Hendra and Nipah henipaviruses, Ebola and Marburg filoviruses, and Nipah and Hendra henipaviruses.

The study claims that the natural ability of bats to tolerate inflammation, which evolved together with their capacity for flight, is another determinant. Bats' resistance to inflammation allows them to take the immune reactions that more virulent viruses with faster growth rates elicit in their bodies.

Even though the study predicts that bats and a few other mammalian groups would probably continue to host and be a source of viruses with high growth rates that could become virulent after spreading to humans, these viruses are not anticipated to be the most contagious, either across species (from bat to human) or within the human population, after the spillover event.

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