Asbestos fibers get stuck in the body - with serious consequences

For 50 years, the health risk of asbestos has been known

For almost 50 years, asbestos has been implicated in causing cancer. The exact reason for this connection was not sufficiently understood so far. Swiss researchers have now discovered why asbestos damages the body so much. The form of asbestos fibers is, according to the research, significantly involved in the harmful effects.

The fibers of the asbestos are long and pointed and can cause chronic inflammation. Study leader Emanuela Felley-Bosco reports that the body reacts to these inflammations with a kind of wound healing that brings the immune system out of balance. As a result, emerging tumors would not fight hard enough. The results of the study were recently published in the journal "Oncogene".

For 50 years it has been known that asbestos is harmful to health, but only now has a Swiss research team discovered the reason. (Image: Bernard MAURIN / fotolia.com)

Asbestos does not trigger lung cancer

The research team consisted of scientists from the University Hospitals of Zurich, Geneva and Toronto in Canada as well as the University of Freiburg and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. The researchers refuted the prevailing view that asbestos can cause lung cancer. Instead, the asbestos fibers pass through the lungs into the mesothelium, a cell layer that surrounds all internal organs, explain the scientists. There they then commit themselves.

The fibers stay in the body

The lymphatic system can not remove the long and pointed fibers. These remain in the mesothelium where they repeatedly injure the surrounding tissue. These chronic injuries can eventually lead to the formation of tumors. The scientists have obtained their findings in mice, which were injected with asbestos fibers into the abdominal cavity, as there is also a mesothelium layer in the abdomen.

Asbestos is chemically harmless

The researchers were able to show that asbestos is chemically harmless. The numerous micro-injuries trigger the immune reactions, which can ultimately lead to cancer. The signal substances that are activated for wound healing also promote cell division, which can promote the formation of tumors, explain the experts.

Emerging tumor cells are no longer controlled

The researchers found mutations in the RNA and assume that these mutations contribute to the fact that the emerging tumor cells are not controlled consistently enough and eventually cancer.

Comparisons in humans show similar results

According to the scientists, analyzes of corresponding gene databases show that in human tumors with a poor disease course, the enzyme that mutates the RNA is present in large quantities.

Asbestos-induced cancer was a black box

"So far, the cancer caused by asbestos was a black box," explains Felley-Bosco in a press release from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), which co-funded the study. The results of her team are useful to recognize the early signs of inflammation and to develop a specific therapy for mesothelioma cancer.

New therapeutic approaches

"Therapy against immune system inhibitors is a promising approach," says Felley-Bosco. There are already similar therapeutic approaches against mesothelioma cancer today. A clinical study on advanced stage immunotherapy is currently underway at five Swiss and ten other hospitals in the UK and Spain. According to Felley-Bosco, the discoveries could also be useful for understanding other cancers caused by chronic inflammation of the intestine, such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease, and Helicobacter pylori infections. (Vb)