Oxygen roots of cancer
The Nobel laureate named two main mechanisms of cancer development
Dangerous mutations and associated cancers most often occur in the human body not because of radiation, solar ultraviolet or carcinogens in food, but because of processes associated with the circulation of oxygen and water in the body. This was stated by Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Thomas Lindahl, answering questions from a TASS correspondent on the sidelines of the Moscow part of the XIV All-Russian Nauka 0+ Festival, held at Moscow State University.
"We all know that ultraviolet light can cause skin cancer, and radiation sources can cause cancer of other organs. On the other hand, no one believes that ultraviolet light can cause tumors in the brain, liver and other internal organs, and only 1% of tumors are associated with ionizing radiation. The question arises – where does cancer come from?" – noted Lindahl.
The 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded three well–known chemists and molecular biologists whose work helped to understand exactly how cells "repair" their DNA - this process is called repair. The winners were Thomas Lindahl (Sweden), Paul Modric (USA) and Aziz Sankar (USA). This week, the Swedish researcher visited Russia for the first time and delivered a lecture at the XIV All-Russian Nauka 0+ Festival.
Lindahl discovered the mechanism of the so-called excisional repair of bases. The enzymes involved find the damaged section of DNA, cut it out and repair the gap using the intact DNA chain as a sample. This process, as explained by the molecular biologist, helps cells avoid the daily appearance of several thousand new mutations in the genomes of cells.
Almost all of these "typos" in DNA, as explained by Lindahl, are associated with two processes – the penetration of oxygen molecules and its aggressive compounds into the cell nucleus, as well as the action of water molecules on single "letters" of DNA strands.
"I am ready to bet money that almost all cases of cancer known to medicine arise not because of radiation, carcinogens or ultraviolet, but as a result of natural processes of vital activity inside the cells themselves associated with hydrolysis (decomposition of water – approx. TASS) and the appearance of aggressive forms of oxygen," the Nobel Laureate said.
According to him, it is extremely important to understand this feature of cancer, since both oxygen and water play a key role in the life of the body. They cannot be removed from the body, prevent their appearance in it – in general, it is impossible to fight them. For this reason, according to Lindahl, cancer cannot be defeated in principle – you can only create drugs that will destroy tumors more efficiently and safely, as well as minimize other risk factors.
In particular, he recommended that all smokers completely give up tobacco or at least stop smoking one cigarette after another, since the substances present in cigarette smoke act on cells in about the same way as aggressive forms of oxygen, and just as strongly contribute to the development of mutations.
"Of course, we can try to improve the mutation repair systems that we and our colleagues have discovered. I strongly doubt that we will be able to solve this problem – this system has been perfected by nature for many billions of years. For comparison, we had to spend more than ten years just to uncover the mechanisms of operation of only one of the many mechanisms of DNA repair. It is extremely doubtful that we will be able to come up with something that nature has not already tried and rejected during this time," Lindahl summed up.
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