The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has thrown much of the world into disarray, with over 4 million people reported infected and well over 282,000 deaths. A new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv* in May 2020 suggests that the long-term impact of the virus could include activation of dormant bacterial infections like tuberculosis (TB).

With Assam being one of the states with high incidence of cancer cases and high mortality of cancer patients due to lack of treatment or late diagnosis, absence of standard treatment protocol has further compounded the problem. Physician-scientist Dr Bikul Das, who has been closely related with research in cancer stem cell, said his interaction with cancer patients of the state for nearly a decade has revealed the lack of a standard treatment protocol, which has increased the problem further.

Researchers at KaviKrishna Lab in Guwahati, Assam, led by Bikul Das, have discovered that cancer stem cells (CSCs) activate a stemness pathway that helps them evade chemotherapy and radiotherapy. This pathway, similar to one used by embryonic stem cells for altruistic behavior, suggests that biological altruism might play a role in cancer growth. Published in Cancer Research, the study shows that CSCs maintain a stable, low frequency among cancer cells by possibly hijacking the HIF-2alpha stemness pathway. This discovery could change our understanding of how cancer grows and is maintained. The research was conducted in collaboration with Stanford University and funded by the KaviKrishna Foundation, the Laurel Foundation, and the NIH.

Tuberculosis is a devastating disease that kills nearly 2 million people worldwide each year. Although antibiotics exist that can ameliorate the symptoms, the courses of therapy last for months and don't completely eradicate the disease, which frequently recurs years or decades after the initial treatment.