Katharina Buczek
So, the study definitively identified 5-oxoETE/ OXER1 as a critical immune pathway.
“And since OXER1 gets deactivated in some types of tumors, it may play a role in preventing some cancers– possibly related to OXER1’s role in inflammation and immune surveillance that we demonstrated in this research,” Dr. Ma added.
In addition to paving the way for new therapeutic cancer approaches, though, the researchers’ study also stressed just how important and viable the zebrafish research model is.
Dr. Ma believes that just relying on rats or mice, or really any single species, to study human disease mechanisms is a great disservice.
“As a worst-case scenario, [it can] mislead or delay preclinical research,” he said.
“No single animal model is perfect. They all have strengths and weaknesses. And in biomedical research– just like in the natural world– diversity matters.”
To read the study’s complete findings, which have since been published in Cell Reports, visit the link here.
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