Dieser Wal lebt jahrhundertelang: Sein Geheimnis könnte dazu beitragen, die Lebensspanne des Menschen zu verlängern

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Sounds like some Emperor Leto II action

The secret is eating a ton of krill every day. No more, no less.

Live longer only to continue fueling billionaires gluttony??? No thanks

Isn’t the leading theory that whales are so big that even their cancers get cancer? That’s what stuck with me at least, cuz it sounds metal af

I got you fam

Evidence for improved DNA repair in long-lived bowhead whale

Firsanov, D. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09694-5 (2025).

Tldr:
Here we present evidence of cellular and molecular traits that may underlie cancer resistance and longevity in the bowhead whale. We show that bowhead whale cells are not more prone to apoptosis and do not require additional genetic hits for malignant transformation relative to human cells. Instead, the bowhead whale relies on improvements in DNA repair and the maintenance of genome stability. This more ‘conservative’ strategy that does not needlessly eliminate cells but repairs them may be beneficial for the long and cancer-free lifespan of the bowhead whale.

Abtract:

At more than 200 years, the maximum lifespan of the bowhead whale exceeds that of all other mammals. The bowhead is also the second-largest animal on Earth1, reaching over 80,000 kg. Despite its very large number of cells and long lifespan, the bowhead is not highly cancer-prone, an incongruity termed Peto’s paradox2. Here, to understand the mechanisms that underlie the cancer resistance of the bowhead whale, we examined the number of oncogenic hits required for malignant transformation of whale primary fibroblasts. Unexpectedly, bowhead whale fibroblasts required fewer oncogenic hits to undergo malignant transformation than human fibroblasts. However, bowhead whale cells exhibited enhanced DNA double-strand break repair capacity and fidelity, and lower mutation rates than cells of other mammals. We found the cold-inducible RNA-binding protein CIRBP to be highly expressed in bowhead fibroblasts and tissues. Bowhead whale CIRBP enhanced both non-homologous end joining and homologous recombination repair in human cells, reduced micronuclei formation, promoted DNA end protection, and stimulated end joining in vitro. CIRBP overexpression in Drosophila extended lifespan and improved resistance to irradiation. These findings provide evidence supporting the hypothesis that, rather than relying on additional tumour suppressor genes to prevent oncogenesis3,4,5, the bowhead whale maintains genome integrity through enhanced DNA repair. This strategy, which does not eliminate damaged cells but faithfully repairs them, may be contributing to the exceptional longevity and low cancer incidence in the bowhead whale.

Is this potentially what the last avatar movie was referencing with it’s whalealiens and the substance they harvested from them? I imagine ol‘ James with his interest in the ocean depths could know of this before most.