May Bats Maintain a Secret to Longevity? New Analysis Factors to an Uncommon Benefit
Scientists studying how some tiny bats stay healthy and cancer-free for decades have uncovered surprising links to genes that help their immune systems fight viruses.
New research suggests the reason some bats lead long lives and rarely develop cancer may be hiding in the same genes that help their immune systems fight viruses.
An international team of researchers at Penn State, the University of Vermont,UC Berkeley, and other institutions analyzed the genomes of eight species of Myotis, or mouse-eared bats, and found that longer-lived species had higher levels of genes associated with fighting cancer. The analysis also revealed substantial overlap between genes linked to longevity and genes that help fend off viruses.
The findings were highlighted by ScienceDaily on September
The findings were highlighted by ScienceDaily on September 11 after the study was published in Natureon August 26.
“Bats evolved to live for a long time without getting diseases, which suggests that we don’t necessarily need to look at diseases of aging and diseases of infection as completely separate fields,” said Juan Manuel Vazquez, an assistant professor of biology at Penn State and co-lead author of the study. “We can look at these bats and try to understand how, in the same way you can improve your immune system to fight off viruses, maybe you can improve your immune system so it doesn’t decline in old age.”
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Bats enjoy remarkably long lifespans for mammals of their size. The little brown bat, for example, measures only about 2.5 to 4 inches long and weighs less than half an ounce, yet the species is known to live into its 30s. Brandt’s myotis bats are even smaller, measuring only about 1.5 to 2 inches long and weighing less than one-third of an ounce.
To explore how bats resist diseases associated
To explore how bats resist diseases associated with aging, Vazquez and the research team also created laboratory cell cultures from bat-wing tissue to see how cells from different species reacted when their DNA was severely damaged.
The experiments revealed a potential defense against cancer. Cells from the little brown bat responded to severe DNA damage by increasing the activity of genes that kill damaged cells rather than trying to repair them. Eliminating badly damaged cells could prevent mutations from accumulating and potentially developing into cancer.
Source: www.inc.com
