Elephant's testicles may hold key to fight cancer, infertility in humans

For decades, scientists have been fascinated by the low incidence of cancer in elephants, pointing out if this holds any learnings forhumanity's fight against it. It has been revealed thatthe temperature of the testicles of elephants may hold key to the answer.

The conventional understanding suggests that larger animals like elephants and whales would be more susceptible to cancer than humans, given their higher cell count and greater potential for malfunction.

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But in 1977 through the concept of Peto's paradox, it emerged that these large animals have a lower cancer risk. Elephants experience cancer-related deaths at a rate of 5 per cent, compared to the 25 per cent observed in humans.

Elephants make more cancer-fighting protein

According to a report in The Times, humans have one copy of theTP53 gene, referred to as the "guardian of the genome," which produces a protein which plays a crucial role in suppressing cancer by repairing damaged DNA and eliminating irreparable cells. In contrast,elephants have an astonishing 20 copies of this cancer-fighting gene, which significantly enhances their resistance to cancer.

Unlike humans, elephants have internal testicles, which exposes them to higher temperatures than the ideal conditions required for sperm production (approximately 3 degrees Celsius cooler than body temperature). This increased heat poses a risk of DNA damage to the sperm.

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Fritz Vollrath, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Oxford, suggests in a publication for the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution that elephants evolved to produce multiple copies of the p53 gene to repair the DNA damage occurring in their sperm.

The cancer-fighting mechanism, thereby, just appears to be an evolutionary biproduct.

This research could have significant implications for cancer research and the study of male infertility in humans, especially during a time when sperm count is declining. Vollrath believes that elephants offer a unique system for investigating the evolutionary development of robust defence mechanisms against DNA damage, providing valuable insights into our own battle against cancer.

Elephants' resistance to cancer, thereby, appears tohold key insights for fighting cancer and understanding male infertility in humans.

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