How asbestos causes the deadly mesothelioma cancer
Asbestos is a silicate mineral with long and thin crystals and it’s best known for it’s toxicity. If the toxic asbestos fibers get inhaled, it can lead to various heavy illnesses, such as mesothelioma, lung cancer or asbestosis. It’s main characteristics are heat resistance and high durability, and because of that it was used in the past a lot. When it got clear that it’s very toxic, it’s use was regulated and brought to a minimum.
Researchers at the Ohio State University have launched a research project which aims to monitor the bonding between the asbestos fibers and human cells. Although they are aware that clinical trials could be years away, they hope that the data gathered from this research could help in drug development for treating deadly diseases asbestos fibers cause, such as mesothelioma.
They method they’re using in this research is called atomic force microscopy. What they’re actually doing here is observe how asbestos fibers bind with specific receptors on the cell surface. They suspect that asbestos fibers cause a chain of events inside human cells, and that makes them ill. Eventually, the die. “We can feel and observe what’s happening on molecular surfaces,” said Eric Taylor, a coauthor of the study. “We’re looking at what molecules are involved in the chain of events when the fiber touches the cell. Does the binding occur over minutes, or hours? And what processes are triggered?”
“The hypothesis we’re testing is that binding of cell surface receptors to asbestos fibers triggers a signal event, which initiates the cancer,” said Steven Lower, an associate professor at Ohio State University and the coauthor of the study. “There seems to be something intrinsic about certain types of asbestos, blue asbestos in particular, that elicits a unique signal, and it triggers inflammation, the formation of pre-malignant cells and, ultimately, cancer.”
The first protein (receptor) which will be examined is epidermal growth factor receptor, which is present on all human cells. The scientists hope that this will help in preventing the disease. That means that they hope to be able to “know” right after someone gets exposed to asbestos, and cure it. That’s very important, considering that asbestos causes mesothelioma thirty to fifty years after being exposed.
The research is funded by the National Science Foundation.
