New findings on the origin of cancer may lie with a pregnant lizard, a young Australian zoologist has found.
Bridget Murphy, a PhD student from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Sydney, has discovered a protein that is pivotal to a pregnant lizard’s placenta, which may hold the answers to the origin of cancer in humans.
“Our egg-laying ancestors probably never got cancer, but things changed when we started having live young,” she said in a media release.
“Embryos need an extensive network of blood vessels to allow them to grow. So do tumours,” she said.
“I found that the three-toed skink, which gives birth to live young, uses a particularly powerful protein to encourage the growth of blood vessels. The only other place where this protein has been found is in pre-cancerous cells grown in the laboratory.”
Murphy says future testing of the protein may provide a basis of new therapies for cancer, promote wound healing or the regeneration of blood vessels in patients with heart disease.
This particular protein can assist in producing blood vessels in the uterus during pregnancy.
“Both tumours and embryos must develop an extensive network of blood vessels which bring in oxygen and nutrients to allow them to grow,” Murphy said.
“And they both must avoid rejection by hiding from the immune system of their host. In fact, many researchers think that cancers have hijacked the molecular machinery that originally evolved to allow embryonic development,” she said.
“It may be that animals that give birth to live young, such as humans and some lizards, have an increased susceptibility to cancer.”
Murphy is one of 16 early career scientists presenting their research to the public for the first time as part of Fresh Science, a national program sponsored by the federal government.
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