Space could hold the key to treating cancer: Astronauts are testing new drugs on NASA station

It’s known as one of the most hostile environments known to man, but scientists believe the space could hold a clue to cancer treatment.

Experiments involving two new experimental cancer drugs were launched Sunday to the International Space Station (ISS), where researchers hope to study how they respond to microgravity.

There is growing evidence that microgravity accelerates the regeneration of cancer cells.

This will dramatically reduce the amount of time it takes to test treatments on Earth.

The inhibitors and cells infected with leukemia, breast cancer and colon cancer were launched with the second Axiom Space Private Astronaut Mission, Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2).

The crew of four tests the inhibitory drugs to see if they can reverse regeneration in the diseased cells.

Catriona Jamieson, director of the Sanford Stem Cell Institute at the University of California San Diego, said in a statement: “Aerospace is an accelerating environment where we can find new therapies and new ways to target cancer faster, maybe even against the pre-cancer stage.

‘We saw that cancer spreads faster in space; now we want to know how to block it.’

Jamieson and her team have dug into how microgravity accelerates stem cell aging for quite some time, finding that weightlessness can cause changes in the RNA-editing enzyme ADAR (Adenosine Deaminase RNA Specific).

ADAR introduces edits that alter RNA function and potentially cause cancer in blood stem cells.

The team found evidence that ADAR works with another enzyme called APOBEC (APOlipoprotein B mRNA-editing Enzyme, Catalytic) that can cause initial mutations in stem cells during the precancerous stage.

This project builds on the team’s research on the previous Axiom mission in 2022, which sent three-dimensional colon cancer organoids into space in a unique nanobioreactor.

That mission found that tumor stem cells can triple in size in just 10 days and activated an enzyme called adenosine deaminase associated with RNA1, or ADAR1.

The team sent the inhibitors and cells contaminated with leukemia, breast and colon cancer to be tested in space

This enzyme allows cancer cells to clone themselves and evade the body’s immune response by going dormant, making them resistant to therapies that target dividing cells.

“We want to know whether ADAR1 is activated as a stress response to microgravity and whether it is turned on in other types of cancer,” Jamieson said.

‘So this time we are sending three types of tumor cells into space, looking not only at colon cancer, but also at leukemia and organoids of breast cancer cells.’

The drugs were launched with the second Axiom Space Private Astronaut Mission, Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2), which took off Sunday atop a SpaceX rocket

Ax-2 launched Sunday night aboard a SpaceX rocket, carrying two Saudis — the country’s first astronauts in decades. The ticketed crew was led by a retired NASA astronaut who now works for Elon Musk’s company amid another billionaire galactic space hunt

The Ax-2 mission lasts 10 days. During this time, the team document biological changes in the tumor organoids using a high-resolution fluorescence microscope to monitor cell cycle and ADAR1 activity.

This will help identify biomarkers for early detection and determine whether intervention with ADAR1 inhibitors prevents malignant regeneration.

“Findings will lay the groundwork for future cancer stem cell research, both on Earth and for spacefaring heroes who will travel to distant worlds,” researchers shared in the announcement.

According to Jamieson, the results of this experiment will help researchers understand whether ADAR1 is a generalizable stress response that allows cancer cells to clone themselves and whether the enzyme can be knocked out with therapies such as fedratinib or rebecsinib.

“Metastasis occurs when cancer decides to invade and spread to other parts of the body,” said Jamieson.

“ADAR1 is a strong trigger to invade or metastasize, and that’s what we’re trying to knock out.”

Ax-2 launched Sunday night aboard a SpaceX rocket, carrying two Saudis — the country’s first astronauts in decades.

The ticketed crew was led by a retired NASA astronaut who now works for Elon Musk’s company amid another billionaire galactic space hunt.

Rayyanah Barnawi, a stem cell researcher, was sponsored by the Saudi Arabian government and became the first woman from the kingdom to go to space.

Also on board was American businessman John Shoffner, owner of a sports car racing team.