A tiny , removed Ecuadorian village has had a bumpy lot , you might mean . They ’re dwarves , descend from a stemma of Portuguese and Spaniards , coerced into Christian conversion and then persecute by the Inquisition . The upshot?They do n’t get cancer .
They ’re smite with what ’s known as Laron syndrome — the genetic mutation creditworthy for their diminutive size ( below 3.5 feet , on average ) . But this same mutation also pluck the villager of a cellular sensory receptor responsible for for pumping out growth hormone — and it ’s this robbery , the New York Times report , that simultaneously imbues them with an evident immunity to both cancer and diabetes . After 24 years of field by an Ecuadorian doctor , the 99 tracked villagers came down with startlingly few cases of either ill . “ I discovered the population in 1987 , ” explains Dr. Guevara - Aguirre . “ In 1994 , I detect these patient role were not having cancer compared with their relative . ” The obvious consequence of increment hormone insufficiency is — yes - not growing . That ’s why they ’re dwarves . But their cells have superpower .
When researcher apply a genetic serum derived from the Laron villager to cells in a petri dish , they observed two incredible effects — it acted as a shell against stilted damage . And when damage did occur , the the cellphone self - destroy — head off the proliferation of incorrect cells that leads to the growth of cancer .
So what does this stand for for the rest of us ? Great things , maybe . Lowered levels of increase hormone could be the winder to longer life — mice bred by Ohio University have likewise impaired receptors are living 40 % longer than their peers . In fact , the former mouse in scientific history near reached five eld — and had a faulty ontogeny hormone gene , just like the Ecuadorian villagers .
Now , mice are mice . And we ’re not mice . But the more we translate about our bodies and why they ( needs ) go against , the more we can do to stop it . Or at least slow it . Now please give me a syringe of that nanus blood serum that I can get into my neck opening right now . [ NYT ]
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