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Source: ONE News -
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Understanding how kangaroos repair their DNA could be the key to
preventing skin cancer, according to Australian and Austrian
researchers.
The teams are investigating a DNA repair enzyme found in kangaroos
and many other organisms, but not humans, that is very effective in
fixing a particular type of damage linked to many skin
cancers.
The research is led by Dr Linda Feketeova and Dr Uta Wille from the
ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and
Biotechnology at the University of Melbourne, along with scientists
from the University of Innsbruck, Austria.
"As summer approaches, excessive exposure to the sun's harmful UV
light will see more than 400,000 Australians diagnosed with skin
cancer," Feketeova said in a statement.
"Other research teams have proposed a "dream cream" containing the
DNA repair enzyme which you could slap on your skin after a day in
the sun. We are now examining whether this would be
feasible."
The groups are simulating kangaroo skin's exposure to harmful
ultraviolet light in the laboratory, and then analysing the DNA
repair process, which Wille said resulted in a number of chemical
by-products that have not been seen before.
"But there is still much to investigate before this "dream cream"
will be available at the pharmacy, so don't throw out your
sunscreen just yet," Feketeova added.
The research will be published in the upcoming edition of Chemical
Communications.
Over-exposure to sunlight is to blame for at least two-thirds of
cases of melanoma, a notoriously difficult to treat cancer of the
skin, as DNA in sunburnt skin cells becomes damaged, leading to
genetic mutations.
