CU sniffs out cancer link in mothballs

Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 21, 2006 at midnight

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BOULDER - Colorado researchers have helped figure out why mothballs and air fresheners can cause cancer - their chemicals block the natural process of "cell suicide," allowing tumors to develop.

University of Colorado biologists used worms as guinea pigs for the research, the implications of which could be enormous.

An inability to go through the natural cell suicide process causes most cancers and autoimmune diseases.

Conversely, a runaway cell suicide causes Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

"For the first time, we have developed a systematic way to screen virtually any potential cancer-causing chemical that may affect humans," said CU biology professor Ding Xue.

Xue and CU's David Kokel, along with two scientists at Baylor University, published their findings in the June issue of Nature Chemical Biology.

Mothballs contain naphthalene, and some air fresheners have para-dichlorobenzene or PDCB, both proven carcinogens.

Until now, scientists haven't known why those chemicals promote cancer.

The CU team found that the chemicals block enzymes that start cell death, or apoptosis, which puts the brakes on unchecked cell proliferation that triggers cancerous tumors.

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