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Breeding Cancer-Proof Mice

Posted by timothy on from the still-not-drop-proof-though dept.

Bob Vila's Hammer writes "In an article at New Scientist, research scientists at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina have been able to breed a cancer-proof mouse. The lucky new finds, some 700 cancer-proof mice, have the ability to destroy numerous different kinds of cancer cells in their bodies very efficiently without the use of T-cells (white blood cells). Instead the body's innate immune system attacks the tumor cells and ruptures them with neutrophils and macrophages. What is so astounding within early findings is that the power of these mice to resist cancer seems to be unlimited and as well, a genetic trait able to be passed down to further generations without the negative results of previous mouse breeds with autoimmune diseases."

8 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. This is great, but I wonder... by clambake · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's awesome that we can do this, and the implications are incredible if we can apply them to humans, but I wonder if we are going to build a breed of super cancer proof humans and then find out that there is actually a reason why we produce cancers., "Oh, I get it, so THAT what cancer was for..."

    1. Re:This is great, but I wonder... by RzUpAnmsCwrds · · Score: 5, Informative

      We are evolved to be resistant to cancers. Our cells have many built in mechanisims to prevent and destroy cancerous cells.

      Unfortunately, our body's mechanisms aren't quite good enough. But by that point in our life, we've already reproduced, and evolution can no longer help us.

    2. Re:This is great, but I wonder... by NonSequor · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Evolution involves more than just surviving to reproduce. You could say that longer lifetimes are "justified" evolutionarily if after reproducing the parents help out their children to ensure that they live to reproduce. For a species like fruit flies, I doubt there is much that the parents could do to help their young. But for humans, it is vital that the parents stick around.

      As another poster noted, we do have resistances to cancer. It is only when these mechanisms are overridden that cancer develops. One could say that medical science is just another mechanism that we have evolved to protect ourselves from cancer and other threats. Medicine is the result of our intellect, an evolution which has done great things for us so far.

      --
      My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
  2. 2033 AD by psyconaut · · Score: 3, Funny

    The last remaining humans have been enslaved by a breed of mice that developed the ability to self-heal when attacked...the mice escaped from a lab in 2003 where they had been bred to be cancer-proof...unfortunately, nobody noticed the other "side effects" ;-)

    Seriosuly, though...I lost a parent to cancer at a young age, so it'd be nice to see some solid progress on this front.

    -psy

  3. Cancer-proof mice/rats? Bad news... by sladelink · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Anyone else here ever had a mouse or rat that died of cancer? I haven't had one yet that didn't die of huge cancerous tumors. Does anyone know the standard rate of cancer in small rodents, because if it's fairly high, I REALLY hope that they don't let this trait out of the lab and into the sewers/fields.

    --
    sigs are dumb.
  4. This + Harvard Mouse by sameb · · Score: 3, Funny

    And what happens if these mice & the mice bred by Harvard (that are incredibly susceptible to cancer) mate? Do they implode?

  5. Re:virii instead of mice? by Momomoto · · Score: 4, Informative

    We're already doing that, and the results have been pretty promising. There's a good review written up by my honours supervisor here.

    --
    "Max, come over here. French-Canadian bean soup. I want to pay. Let them leave me alone." - Dutch Schultz
  6. Re:Cancer-proof mice/rats? Bad news... by Idarubicin · · Score: 4, Informative

    Mice and rats in the wild don't die of cancer. Usually they get eaten. Sometimes they pick up other diseases. If nearly all human beings were eaten by some creature higher on the food chain--say, dragons--before the age of thirty, humans wouldn't have to worry about cancer, either. Lab animals only get cancer when
    a) they are kept in clean cages and cared for so that they live for years beyond their 'normal' lifespan,
    b) researchers deliberately induce tumour formation, and/or
    c) the mice have been bred (or genetically altered a la Harvard mouse) specifically to be susceptible to cancer.

    --
    ~Idarubicin