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This frog bacterium wiped out cancer tumors in mice with a single dose (www.sciencedaily.com)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/science@lemmy.ml
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/49405375

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[–] 3 points 2 months ago* (1 child)

Did the bacterium evolve to fight cancer in its host just due to selection pressure to prevent host death?

If that’s the case, I’m surprised it was able to do it better than its host’s immune system—I guess bacteria can evolve faster due to shorter generations?

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago

    I doubt tree frogs live long enough for the bacteria to have evolved to fight cancer as such. They are quite small.

    They also produce of range of drugs secreted on their skin, including anti-virals for hiv, antibiotics (russian one,) one containing a super opiate, (south american desert one,) the poison dart ones, what else, there are others.

    The toxins are not alkaloids but peptides, and tend to have a much shorter half time as active ingredients as I'm aware.

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