This way of sleeping makes cancer easy to get and difficult to treat

Research from the University of Pennsylvania (USA) has demonstrated that a series of processes in the body can be disrupted by poor quality night sleep and contribute to cancer. These are sleep that starts too late or interrupted sleep patterns, waking up one or more times in the middle of the night, for example, night shift workers who take turns taking short naps.

First, the research team led by neuroscientist Amita Sehgal, PhD, and colleagues discovered that disrupting the circadian rhythm that promotes sleep turns on certain toxic genes that encourage cancer cells to multiply and turns off certain genes that are part of the body's natural defenses, which help prevent the growth of other tumors.

The team also discovered another domino effect in sleep-deprived people: sleep disruption affects a gene that activates a “key protein” that releases a protein that stimulates cancer cell division.

They tested a drug called PD-0332991, which blocks the activity of the protein that stimulates cell division in the domino chain. However, the drug also lost some of its power when tested on mice with chronic circadian rhythm disorders – similar to those of people who have lived a long life as “night owls”.

The findings are consistent with some previous statistical studies on cancer, such as one that found that women who work long shifts at night have a 5-20% higher risk of breast cancer than the population average.

While the results may seem depressing, according to the research team, a better understanding of the effects of sleep at the cellular level suggests that we may be able to leverage sleep itself in strategies to reduce cancer risk and aid in cancer treatment.

The latest results of the study have just been published in the scientific journal PLOS Biology.