Fish are found genes that ensure their resistance to cancer

American scientists have made a very important discovery. They managed to identify specific genes directly related to the high resistance to oncological diseases in Chondrichthyes cartilaginous fish, which includes about 1207 species. This class includes sharks and rays. The results of the scientific work were published in the journal BMG Genomics .

The skeleton of cartilaginous fishes consists not of bones, but of cartilages, in view of which they completely lack the bone marrow, which produces B-cells of immunity. Nevertheless, the immune resistance of the cartilaginous is noticeably higher than that of their bony congeners. Scientists, for example, have long noticed that sharks simply can not get cancer. And this question haunted the learned minds for many years. It seems that science now has the answer: why cartilaginous fishes are resistant to this fatal disease.

During the study, samples of the heart tissue of four cartilaginous and three teleostic fishes were compared. Their genomes were compared by RNA sequencing. As a result, scientists found that the genome of cartilaginous fish contains a number of mutant genes. For example, the sharks had an ortholog of the human gene LGMN, as well as Bag1. In science, it is believed that suppression of these genes in the human body leads to the appearance of tumors, but in sharks, these genes are overexpressed. In addition, fish of this class possess a large number of genes of humoral immunity.

It is naive to believe that this discovery will soon make it possible to find a universal cure for cancer, but one can hope that due to the genetics actively developing in recent years it will be possible one day to increase the resistance of the human body to oncological diseases. All the prerequisites for this in modern science there. And do not think that eating meat of the same sharks can somehow protect the human body. Scientists claim that in the body of these fish, too often a level of mercury concentration that is too dangerous for humans is observed.

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/eto-interesno/u-ryb-obnaruzheny-geny-obespechivayushhie-ix-ustojchivost-k-raku.html.