New cancer research How do fruit flies help to detect cancer tumors?

Thanks to fruit flies gained new knowledge about tumors
Cancer researchers have gained new insights into the development of tumors through studies on fruit flies, which can also be applied to humans. At a symposium in Heidelberg, attended by hundreds of experts from all over the world, it is currently reported and discussed about stem cells, cancer and cancer stem cells.

New findings on the development of tumors
In some years, fruit flies become a veritable summer plague. In 2014, St. Vinzenz Hospital in Dusseldorf even had to close two operating theaters, as these were affected by fruit flies. In other areas of the health sector, however, the small insects are very helpful. For example, cancer researchers have gained new insights into the development of tumors by studying fruit flies.

With research on fruit flies, cancer researchers have gained new insights into the development of tumors, which can also be applied to humans. (Image: Rainer Fuhrmann / fotolia.com)

International symposium in Heidelberg
The Viennese molecular biologist Jürgen Knoblich said in a message from the news agency dpa: "We have succeeded in recreating the formation of a tumor stem cell from a normal stem cell in the fruit fly."

Knoblich is currently attending the International Heinrich Behr Symposium, which "regularly brings together the international elite of cancer, stem cell and tumor stem cell researchers in Heidelberg," according to a statement by the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ).

Research can be transferred to humans
The research of the expert from the Institute for Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) in Vienna has shown that defects in the cell division in the fruit fly led to the development of tumors. When a particular gene is mutated and the protein is removed from the fly, it causes brain cancer, Knoblich explained. "And those brain tumors in the fly have properties that are also very characteristic of human tumors."

For example, the cells shared significantly more than healthy tissue. "While the normal stem cell eventually stops dividing, these tumor stem cells do not die," Knoblich explained. According to the agency message, the research can be transferred to humans, because there is also this particular protein in it.

Fruit flies can smell cancer cells
Years ago, scientists from the University of Konstanz and La Sapienza University in Rome had reported that certain fruit flies can smell cancer cells. With their scent receptors they can therefore not only distinguish between healthy and diseased cells, but also classify which group of cancer the ulcer belongs to. (Ad)