Did you know there are two (at least) kinds of mole rats? I didn't until recently. Here they are:
Blind mole rat
Naked mole rat
Beautiful creatures, aren't they?
Well, they're fascinating anyway. Naked mole rats have been shown to be cancer-resistant. Their cells are programmed to cease division when they sense they are getting too crowded. So any cancerous cells that develop will eventually crowd themselves out of dividing any further, "contact inhibition," as the shop talk goes. Basically, the cancer cells keep quiet about their identity, and do no harm.
Recently, in a paper by a team at the University of Rochester, blind mole rats are shown to also have cancer-fighting properties. However, it seems their potential cancer cells take a different tack. When they sense they have divided more than a normal amount of times, they kill themselves with their form of a cyanide capsule: a protein, IFN-beta. Rather than risk wreaking havoc on their sister cells, they take themselves out of the picture.
It's exciting to think that perhaps these discoveries will help us unleash hidden knowledge our own cells have. Or to simply help develop a novel drug.
Of course, it's absurd to think the cells have "free will" as I have analogized. Nonetheless, I couldn't help thinking about Battlestar Galactica when thinking about cells discovering they were something else. By the way, if you haven't seen it, don't wait around, just do it.
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