Exploring the Immortal Jellyfish: A New Animal Model for Cancer Research on Dormancy

Jeya Chelliah B.Vsc Ph.D

One largely unexplored avenue in cancer research is the role of cellular dormancy in the development of metastases, where cancer cells remain inactive for years before reawakening and forming secondary tumors. Turritopsis dohrnii, with its ability to pause its life cycle and revert to an earlier stage, presents a novel model for studying this aspect of cancer biology. The jellyfish’s life cycle reversal could serve as an analogue for cancer cell dormancy and reactivation, providing an unprecedented opportunity to study the mechanisms that allow cells to switch between active and dormant states.

The most intriguing idea is to utilize T. dohrnii to uncover the genetic and epigenetic factors that allow cells to enter and exit dormancy. In cancer, dormant tumor cells often remain undetectable and resistant to treatments, yet they can “wake up” years later, causing metastatic relapse. Understanding how T. dohrnii regulates this switch between dormancy (polyp stage) and activity (medusa stage) could provide insights into preventing the reactivation of dormant cancer cells, which is one of the most significant challenges in treating metastases.

The jellyfish’s ability to remain in a dormant-like state under unfavorable conditions and resume growth when circumstances improve offers a parallel to how dormant cancer cells behave under stressful environments like low oxygen or nutrient deprivation. By exploring the molecular cues that trigger these transitions in T. dohrnii, scientists could identify new targets to prevent dormant cancer cells from becoming active, potentially leading to therapies that stop metastasis in its tracks.

This use of Turritopsis dohrnii could pioneer a new frontier in cancer research, focusing on the enigmatic behavior of dormant cells and their role in cancer progression, which is an area not fully understood. By identifying the “dormancy switch” in both the jellyfish and cancer cells, we could develop therapies to keep cancer cells in a dormant state permanently, preventing metastasis and improving long-term outcomes for patients.