Unexpected superpowers of Chernobyl mutant wolves have been revealed: resistance to cancer

The findings could help scientists fight the disease in humans

A new study has found that mutant Chernobyl wolves roaming the area around the infamous nuclear power plant appear to have developed resistance to cancer.

Photo: unsplash.com < p>Wolves are exposed to cancer-causing radiation as they roam the wastelands of an abandoned town near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but researchers have found that some of their genetic information appears to be resistant to increased risk of disease.

So, as Sky News tells it , the mutant wolves roaming the deserted streets of Chernobyl appear to have developed resistance to cancer, raising hopes that the findings could help scientists fight the disease in humans.

In 1986, a nuclear reactor exploded at the Chernobyl power plant in the Ukrainian SSR – More than 100,000 people were evacuated from the city because the explosion released cancer-causing radiation, Sky News recalls.

The area has remained eerily abandoned since then, and the Chernobyl exclusion zone was created to prevent people from entering a 1,000-square-mile zone where radiation still poses a cancer risk.

People may not have returned, but wild animals such as wolves and horses roam the wasteland of the evacuated city more than 35 years after the disaster, Sky News reveals.

Cara Love, evolutionary biologist and ecotoxicologist from Princeton University in the US, is studying how Chernobyl wolves survive despite exposure to radioactive particles for generations.

Kara Love and a team of researchers visited the Chernobyl exclusion zone in 2014 and radio-collared the wolves so they could was to track their movements.

The biologist said the collars give the team «real-time information about where the wolves are and how much radiation they are exposed to.»

Scientists also took blood samples from the animals to understand how the wolves' bodies reacts to cancer-causing radiation.

Researchers have found that Chernobyl wolves are exposed to more than 11.28 millirents of radiation every day throughout their lives, more than six times the legal safety limit for humans.

Cara Love discovered that wolves have altered immune systems, similar to cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy, but, more importantly, she also identified certain parts of the animals' genetic information that appear to be resistant to an increased risk of developing cancer.

Many human studies have identified mutations that increase the risk of developing cancer – for example, having a BRCA gene variant increases a woman's chance of developing breast or ovarian cancer. But Capa Love's work was aimed at identifying protective mutations that increase the chances of surviving cancer.

The pandemic and armed conflict in Ukraine prevented Cara Love and her collaborators from returning to the Chernobyl exclusion zone in recent years. She said: "Our priority– to ensure maximum safety for people and employees there.»

Cara Love presented her findings at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in Seattle, Washington, last month.