Word: tasmanians
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...peculiar, transmissible disease. Devil facial tumor disease (DFTD) causes tumors to form in and around the mouth of infected devils; the tumors eventually grow so large that they prevent the animal from feeding and lead to starvation. First discovered in 1996, the cancer has spread swiftly through the Tasmanian devil population, killing more than 70% of the island's animals. If nothing is done to stop the disease, the devils could go extinct within 35 years. (See 10 species nearing extinction...
...genetic analysis of DFTD and found that it likely began in the devil's Schwann cells, a type of tissue that protects nerve fibers. Researchers have also identified genetic markers for the disease, which should allow doctors to distinguish facial tumor disease easily from other cancers that afflict the Tasmanian devil, and could eventually help determine a genetic pathway to attack the tumor itself. "This is the first application of genetics to estimate the basic biology of the tumor," says Tony Papenfuss, a bioinformatics researcher at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne...
...that are thought to spread this way. While some human cancers can be linked to transmissible pathogens - such as cervical cancer, which is caused by the human papillomavirus - in DFTD, infected devils actually transmit the tumor itself to other devils when they bite. (See TIME's video "Saving the Tasmanian Devil...
...only way to slow the spread of the disease is simply to separate healthy devils from infected ones. Naturalists are creating "devil's islands," cancer-free areas in Tasmania where healthy devils can live and breed. But that alone may not be enough to save the animal - the Tasmanian Conservation Trust recently warned that there were not enough healthy devils in captivity to ensure a viable population. "It's critical that we find something to help save them," Elizabeth Murchison, the lead author on the paper, told Science in an interview...
...treatment that attacks the tumor, but spares healthy cells. "The key in a vaccine is not to create immune action that would hurt the devils by attacking their Schwann cells," says Papenfuss. "Now we can look for specific markers on the tumor cells to attack." Tough as they are, Tasmanian devils still need a lot of help...