Hyderabad: A team of scientists led by Santosh Chauhan of the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) here have found that cells have a built-in way to revive back from the “brink of death”.
The process of revival is highly programmed and mimic developmental growth, a CCMB release said on Tuesday.
The scientists demonstrated that such a revival, which they called as Programmed Cell Revival, sped up skin wound healing and repaired corneal burns in mice, stimulated tail regeneration in frog tadpoles, promoted nerve repair in worms, and enhanced blood stem cell production in fruit flies, it said.
The study is published in EMBO Journal.
This finding overturns the dogma that once a cell begins to die, its journey is irreversible, the release said.
“What we see is not accidental survival of cells. Rather we find that cells across organisms have the ability to follow a common mechanism that can reactivate their developmental, metabolic, and immune pathways to restore their full cellular function,” Chauhan said.
“This discovery reshapes how we think about life, death, and healing at the cellular level,” he said.
The scientists have filed for Indian and international patents for the discovery.
However, the scientists also cautioned that the same revival programme could pose risks in certain contexts, particularly cancer.
Many cancer drug screens rely on superficial signs of cell death, but this study warns that such cells may not be truly dead and could revive with enhanced stem-like properties, potentially making tumors more aggressive, Chauhan said.
While “Programmed Cell Revival” mechanisms may be a blessing for regenerative medicine strategies, they possibly reduce the efficacy of cancer treatments, he said.
The discovery has opened up a new frontier in cell biology, the release added.
