Short Ecuadorians are immune to cancer and diabetes

Almaty. February 18. Kazakhstan Today - Inhabitants of Ecuadorian villages are immuned to cancer and diabetes, Kazakhstan Today reports.

People living in remote villages in Ecuador have a mutation that some biologists say may throw light on human longevity and ways to increase it, The NewYork Times reported

A tiny, remote Ecuadorian village has had a rough lot, you might think. They're dwarves, descended from a lineage of Portuguese and Spaniards.

They're afflicted with what's known as Laron syndrome - the genetic mutation responsible for their diminutive size (below 1m, on average). But this same mutation also robs the villagers of a cellular receptor responsible for pumping out growth hormone - and it's this robbery, the New York Times reports, that simultaneously imbues them with an apparent immunity to both cancer and diabetes. After 24 years of study by an Ecuadorian doctor, the 99 tracked villagers came down with startlingly few cases of either ailment. "I discovered the population in 1987," explains Dr Guevara-Aguirre. "In 1994, I noticed these patients were not having cancer compared with their relatives." The obvious effect of growth hormone deficiency is - yes - not growing. That's why they're dwarves. But their cells have superpowers.

When researchers applied a genetic serum derived from the Laron villagers to cells in a petri dish, they observed two incredible effects - it acted as a shield against artificial damage. And when damage did occur, the cells self-destructed - heading off the proliferation of faulty cells that leads to the growth of cancer.

Lowered levels of growth hormone could be the key to longer life - mice bred by the University of Ohio have similarly impaired receptors are living 40 per cent longer than their peers. In fact, the oldest mouse in scientific history nearly reached five years - and had a defective growth hormone gene, just like the Ecuadorian villagers.

Laron syndrome results from a mutation in the gene that codes for growth hormone receptor (GHR), a protein that binds with the human growth hormone and ultimately results in the production of the insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1), causing cells to grow and divide. When a person has two of these mutated and non-working genes, they can develop the disease, MSNBC informed.

High levels of IGF1 have been implicated in cancer and diabetes in previous studies, and low levels have been found to cause increased longevity in everything from yeast and worms to mice.

Sure enough, in the short-statured Ecuadorian group, the study revealed that deficient growth hormone receptor led to low levels of IGF1, and this was associated with the disease-resistance.

"If, in fact, these deficiencies in the growth hormone receptor are extendable to everyone else, then you could, with a drug that was already available, reduce the incidence of cancer and diabetes," said lead study author Valter Longo of the University of Southern California.

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