Needs must where the devil drives - why human cancer drugs could help save Australian critter
University of Cambridge scientists could save a rare Australian marsupial from going the way of the Passenger Pigeon, Dodo and the Tasmanian Tiger.
The Tasmanian Devil is at risk of extinction due to the spread of two transmissible strains of cancer. The disease causes facial tumours and has led to a huge drop in the number of the animals living in the wild.
Now the researchers from Cambridge have found that drugs developed for human cancer treatment were able to stop the growth of devil cancer cells in a lab.
The study, published in journal Cancer Cell, has raised hopes of developing a treatment to save the animals.
Dr Elizabeth Murchison, from the Department of Veterinary Medicine at theUniversity of Cambridge, said: "
Tasmanian devils and dogs are the only mammals affected by rare transmissible cancers.
The first strain, devil facial tumour one (DFT1), occurred in a single animaldecades ago and was observed for the first time in 1996, but has since spread throughout the island of Tasmania.
A second strain, devil facial tumour two (DFT2), was discovered in 2014 and is currently confined to a peninsula in the south east. While the two are biologically different, they are visibly similar and both are thought to be passed between devils through the transfer of living cancer cellswhen they bite each other.
The cancer causes disfiguring facial tumours which usually kill the animals.
A research team led by Dr Murchison analysed the profiles of the two strains and found molecules known as receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) played an important role in sustaining the growth and survival of both DFT cancers.
Drugs targeting RTKs have already been developed for human cancer and were found to efficiently stop the growth of devil cancer cells in a lab setting.
The researchers also suggest the transmissible cancers arise naturally inTasmanian devils, after finding no evidence they are caused by external factors or viruses.
Maximilian Stammnitz, one of the authors of the study, said: