New research suggests that wolves in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) have evolved anti-cancer genomes. Studying this new superpower could aid people in their fight against the devastating disease.
The wolf population in Ukraine’s Chernobyl Exclusion Zone increased significantly following the 1986 nuclear tragedy, which compelled humans to leave the area. When the Chernobyl power station exploded in 1986, it blasted cancer-causing radiation into the environment, forcing over 1 lakh people to evacuate. According to the New York Post, a 1,000-square-mile zone has been roped off to avoid further cancer-causing radiation exposure.
However, in the 38 years following the explosion, wildlife has returned to the area. A pack of wolves roams the CEZ, presumably unscathed by long-term radiation exposure.
The wolves appear to have gained cancer-resistant powers, which has piqued experts’ interest and prompted a decade-long investigation.
Cara Love, an evolutionary biologist and ecotoxicologist at Princeton University has been researching Chernobyl wolves for ten years. In 2014, Love and her colleagues gathered blood samples from the wolves to better understand their reaction to radiation. Some of the animals were also equipped with GPS collars.
“We get real-time measurements of where they are and how much [radiation] they are exposed to,” Love said in a statement.
They discovered that Chernobyl wolves are exposed to up to 11.28 millirems of radiation per day for their whole lifetimes, which is more than six times the acceptable safety limit for the average human worker.
Love and her colleagues revealed that wolves near Chernobyl have “altered immune systems, similar to cancer patients undergoing radiation treatment,” when compared to wolves outside the exclusion zone.
Scientists think that isolating anti-cancer genetic variants in wolves may allow them to better identify alterations that can help humans survive cancer.