The fruitfly research can possibly improve survival rates in cancer patients.
- ByStartupStory | September 25, 2021
The fruit fly research that is being conducted at the University of California-Berkley could help scientists figure out the reason behind the death caused by the cancer tumor cells apart from the critical organ failure. The fruit fly research suggests that the lifespan of cancer patients could be improved if we deal with the effect that tumors have, rather than the conventional removal of the tumor cells. Researchers monitored the fruitflies that had cancer cells and found out that they release a chemical that breaks the barrier between the bloodstream and the brain which can lead to many diseases like infections, trauma, and obesity.
David Builder (professor of molecular and cell biology at UC Berkley), and Jung Kim( a fellow at Bilder’s lab) collaborated with the professors David Raulet and Kaoru Saijo and noticed that tumors in mice release the same chemical called interleukin-6 which is responsible for interfering with the blood-brain barrier.“The IL-6 cytokine is known to cause inflammation. What’s new here is that this tumor-induced inflammation is actually causing the blood-brain barrier to open. If we interfere with that opening process but leave the tumor alone, then the host can live significantly longer and healthier with the same tumor burden,” Bilder enlightens. Therefore, the fruit fly research suggests that dealing with the harmful chemical that cancer cells produce, might actually help increase the life expectancy of the patients.
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