Naked Mole Rats Help Scientists Fight Cancer

Naked mole rats could give scientists a new way to fight cancer. How? This hairless rodent possesses the unique adaptation of being cancer resistant and now, researchers have found out why that is.

Rats and mice are often used as models in cancer research studies. With their short lifespan of about four years and high incidence of cancer, they're perfect as models for cancer studies. Naked mole rats, though, don't share these traits with their cousins. They can live more than 30 years in their burrows and are surprisingly resistant to cancer. In order to find out why this is, scientists decided to study the rodent a bit more closely.

After examining the naked mole rat, the researchers found a super sugar in the rodent's cells called high-molecular-mass Hyaluronan (HMM-HA). When secreted from the rat's cells, HMM-HA prevents the cells from overcrowding and forming tumors. This, in particular, could explain why the rodents live so long and are so cancer resistant.

So what is HMM-HA? It's a form of a long sugar polymer, called Hyaluronan, naturally present as a lubricant in the extracellular matrix of the human body. In fact, it's commonly used in the treatment of arthritis or in anti-wrinkle skin care products. Yet the naked mole rat HA is a bit different from human or mouse HA; it's over five times larger with an extremely high molecular mass.

This high-molecular-mass HA accumulates abundantly in naked mole rat tissues due to a more robust synthesis by a protein called HAS2 and a decreased activity of HA-degrading enzymes. In addition to this difference, there are a few others. When the researchers compared the HAS2 gene between naked mole rats and other mammals, they found two unique amino acids (asparagines) in mammals were replaced by two other amino acids (serines) in the naked mole rat.

It's possible that the naked mole rats evolved higher concentrations of HA in their skin in order to provide it with the elasticity it needs for life in underground tunnels. Currently, researchers are working on finding out how these new discoveries could be used to help battle cancer in humans. So far, the scientists found that when the naked mole rat HAS2 protein was overexpressed in human tissues, the cells began secreting HMM-HA. This could be the first step in developing new methods for preventing cancer.