Zombie outbreak! Who ya gonna call? Mommy?!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
“Zombie” immune cells have been discovered that let tumors grow unchecked! But only in men’s bladders. How can we stop them?
Qingchen Zhu from the Chinese Academy of Sciences went with a woman’s touch.
That’s because women’s digestive systems harbor a beneficial bacteria called Alistipes shahii. This bacteria produces lurasidone, a zombie cell killer.
To test this, researchers treated male mice with bladder cancer with lurasidone. Their tumors shrank by up to SEVENTY PERCENT! Survival rates increased by thirty to forty percent – matching rates in female mice!
Since lurasidone is already FDA-approved for other conditions, this discovery could revolutionize treatment for bladder cancer.
Boy, talk about a gut feeling!
Reference: Zhu, Q., Zhang, G., Cao, M., Huang, H., He, D., Zang, Z., … & Xiao, Y. (2025). Microbiota-shaped neutrophil senescence regulates sexual dimorphism in bladder cancer. Nature Immunology, 1-15.