Tardigrades may hold clues to cancer care, study finds

LOS ANGELES - Radiation therapy is a vital treatment for many cancer patients, but it often comes with severe side effects, especially when healthy tissues are damaged in the process. 

For patients with head and neck or prostate cancer, radiation can inflame oral tissue or harm the rectum, making recovery especially difficult.

Now, scientists are turning to a surprising source for help: tardigrades — tiny, resilient animals known for surviving extreme environments, including radiation levels that would be lethal to most organisms.

How can tardigrade proteins help protect healthy cells during radiation?

The backstory:

The research, supported by the National Institutes of Health, centers around a tardigrade protein called Dsup, short for "damage suppressor." This protein binds to DNA and helps prevent it from breaking — a key cause of side effects in radiation therapy.

In a study published February 26 in Nature Biomedical Engineering, researchers from MIT and the University of Iowa explored whether Dsup could be used to protect healthy human tissues. They developed nanoparticles that delivered messenger RNA (mRNA) instructions to produce Dsup in targeted cells.

In experiments on mice, Dsup production peaked around six hours after injection and faded after a few days. When healthy tissue was exposed to radiation similar to cancer treatment levels, mice treated with the Dsup-encoded nanoparticles had far less DNA damage than untreated ones.

Could this method protect tumors too?

Dig deeper:

One major concern was whether Dsup might unintentionally shield cancer cells. However, researchers found the effects were localized — limited to the area where the nanoparticles were injected — reducing the risk that nearby tumor tissue would also be protected.

FILE - A model tardigrade is seen in a display case at The Grant Museum on February 20, 2024 in London, England.  (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Still, this is an early-stage study. The findings are promising, but more research is needed to refine the approach and explore whether it can be used safely and effectively in human patients.

What they're saying:

"Radiation is an important tool for treating all kinds of cancer, but the side effects caused by radiation-induced damage to healthy tissue can be severe enough to stop patients from completing the therapy," Dr. James Byrne of the University of Iowa told the NIH.

"This is an entirely novel approach for protecting healthy tissue and may eventually offer a way to optimize radiation therapy for patients while minimizing these debilitating side effects," Byrne added.