Cancer free (Image: Mint Images - Frans Lanting/Getty)

IF HUMANS lived as long relative to body size as naked mole rats, we would last for 600 years. These mouse-sized, subterranean African mammals live for over 30 years, and if that wasn’t impressive enough, they don’t get cancer. Now we have a clue why, which could lead to treatments for a variety of human conditions.

Vera Gorbunova at the University of Rochester in New York and colleagues have found that the extracellular matrix in naked mole rats – the gloop that supports tissues – is rich in a substance that stops cancers growing.

The magic ingredient is a polysaccharide called hyaluronan, which acts as a lubricant in the body. It is present in a unique, heavyweight form in naked mole rats known as high-molecular mass hyaluronan (HMM-HA). The animal – which spends most of its life underground – probably evolved the special form to help it squeeze through tunnels but, seemingly as a bonus, the lubricant confers cancer resistance.


By manipulating the pathways that lead to the build-up of HMM-HA in cells, Gorbunova’s team showed that tumours can be grown in naked mole rat tissue prevented from making the lubricant. Regular tissue was immune to tumour formation (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature12234).

Unfortunately, even if HMM-HA also conferred protection against cancer in humans, you may have to manipulate all cells in the body to express it, which is impractical and potentially dangerous. However, the heavyweight version might be beneficial in other human diseases. Co-author Chris Hine of the Harvard School of Public Health says arthritis might be a target. “We could imagine engineering cells found in the joints of a patient suffering from arthritis to express HMM-HA and then placing them back, possibly alleviating the symptoms associated with the disease,” he says.

It may also be possible to modify human skin, brain, eyes and blood vessels, Hine says. “As hyaluronan production decreases in these tissues with age, it would be interesting if we could slow ageing by engineering these organs to produce HMM-HA.”

It may be possible to modify human skin, brain and eyes to produce this molecule and slow ageing

Chris Faulkes, at Queen Mary, University of London, says the animals are well adapted to living in tight spaces. “They can virtually turn somersaults in their skin,” he says. It’s possible that one day some of the cool features of the animals could be engineered into humans, he says. “But we may all end up looking like naked mole rats.”

This article appeared in print under the headline “‘Gloop’ the secret to naked mole rats’ cancer defiance”