Led by Professor Ashok Venkitaraman, this ground-breaking study was conducted by scientists from the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore) at NUS and NUS Centre for Cancer Research (N2CR) under the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, with colleagues from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).

Prof Venkitaraman, Director of CSI Singapore, explained, “Cancer is caused by the interaction between our genes and factors in our environment, such as diet, exercise, and pollution. How such environmental factors increase cancer risk is not yet very clear, but it is vital to understand the connection if we are to take preventive measures that help us stay healthy longer.”

A chemical linked to diabetes, obesity, and poor diet can heighten cancer risk

The research team first studied patients who are at a high risk of developing breast or ovarian cancers because they inherit a faulty copy of the cancer gene — BRCA2 — from their parents. They demonstrated that cells from such patients were particularly sensitive to the effects of methylglyoxal, which is a chemical produced when our cells break down glucose to create energy. The study showed that this chemical can cause faults in our DNA that are early warning signs of cancer development.

The team’s research also suggested that people who do not inherit a faulty copy of BRCA2 but could experience higher-than-normal levels of methylglyoxal — such as patients with diabetes or pre-diabetes, which are connected with obesity or poor diet — can accumulate similar warning signs indicating a higher risk of developing cancer.

Prof Venkitaraman elaborated, “Our research suggests that patients with high methylglyoxal levels may have higher cancer risk. Methylglyoxal can be easily detected by a blood test for HbA1C, which could potentially be used as a marker. Furthermore, high methylglyoxal levels can usually be controlled with medicines and a good diet, creating avenues for proactive measures against the initiation of cancer.”

The study’s first author, Dr Li Ren Kong, Lee Kuan Yew Fellow from N2CR, added, “We started the study aiming to understand what factors elevate risk in families susceptible to cancer, but ended up discovering a deeper mechanism linking an essential energy consumption pathway to cancer development. These findings raise awareness of the impact of diet and weight control in the management of cancer risks.”

Novel mechanism for tumour formation

Interestingly, the research team’s work also revised a longstanding theory about certain cancer-preventing genes. This theory — called the Knudson’s ‘two-hit’ paradigm — was first formulated in 1971, and it was proposed that these genes must be inactivated permanently in our cells before cancer can arise. The NUS team has now found that methylglyoxal can temporarily inactivate such cancer-preventing genes, suggesting that repeated episodes of poor diet or uncontrolled diabetes can ‘add up’ over time to increase cancer risk. This new knowledge is likely to be influential in changing the direction of future research in this area.

Next phase of research

Building on their novel discoveries, the researchers aim to conduct further studies to understand if metabolic disorders, such as diabetes or poor diets, affect cancer risk in Singapore and other Asian countries.

The research team also hopes to identify new mechanisms underlying the connection between metabolism, diet and cancer that they have discovered, to develop more effective approaches to prevent or delay the onset of cancer.

The study analysed samples collected alongside some of the busiest routes in South West England and the Midlands, many used by more than 100,000 vehicles each day.

Tyre particles were discovered in each of the 70 samples taken, confirming the findings of previous research which has shown them to pose a considerable environmental threat.

However, the presence of wetlands and retention ponds led to an average reduction of almost 75% in the mass of tyre wear particles being discharged to aquatic waters, thus providing protection for rivers and the ocean beyond.

The study also found that tyre wear particles significantly outweighed other forms of microplastics, such as plastic fibres and fragments, in the samples collected but that they were also removed in far greater quantities.

The researchers say that while the number of retention ponds and wetlands is quite small, in terms of the UK’s entire road network, the study has international significance as to the most effective ways to mitigate against the potential impacts of tyre pollution on a global scale.

They have also recommended that the maintenance of retention ponds and wetlands should be considered a major priority so that their apparent benefits, when it comes to reducing the flow of tyre particles from roads to rivers, continue to be realised.

The research is published in the Environmental Science and Pollution Research journal, and was carried out by scientists from the University of Plymouth and Newcastle University. It was funded by UK National Highways.

Florence Parker-Jurd, Associate Research Fellow in the University of Plymouth’s International Marine Litter Research Unit, is the study’s lead author.

She said: “Retention ponds and wetlands are constructed as part of highways projects primarily to attenuate flow and prevent downstream flooding, but also to remove pollutants. This study set out to establish if these existing drainage measures in place along parts of the UK’s strategic road network have the potential to halt the spread of tyre pollution. Our results are positive in that regard, and provide a much improved understanding on the extent and nature of tyre pollution. Similar drainage assets are used on a global scale; hence these results are of broad relevance to the management of tyre wear particle pollution.”

Dr Geoff Abbott, Reader in Organic Geochemistry in the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences (SNES) at Newcastle University, has previously developed a breakthrough method using pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS) to detect tyre-derived particles in the environment.

He explained: “Py-GC-MS is a really productive approach that can unravel and quantify the monomeric components of microplastics in the environment. We used it to identify specific components of micro- and nanoplastics that can be unequivocally linked to vehicle tyre tread. That has enabled us to get hard numbers on the total amount of tyre wear particles that are collecting in the influent, effluent, and sediments of the retention ponds and wetlands in this study.”

The new research builds on previous studies involving researchers from Plymouth and Newcastle showing that tyre particles can be transported directly to the ocean through the atmosphere or carried by rainwater into rivers and sewers.

Professor Richard Thompson OBE FRS, Head of the International Marine Litter Research Unit, is senior author on the current study.

He added: “Tyre particles are thought to be among the greatest sources of microplastic pollution worldwide. This finding suggests that existing features of the road network can halt their flow into rivers and seas. But the number of these features is small compared to the total road network and our earlier work has shown substantial quantities of tyre wear particles are dispersed by wind rater then water. Ultimately, we need to seek more systemic solutions perhaps via improved vehicle tyre design.”

Professor Thompson is also currently leading the ongoing TYRE-LOSS project, which aims to highlight the effects of tyre pollution in the marine environment.

A study published by scientists involved in that project earlier this year also found that particles released into the environment from common road tyres should be treated as a “high concern” pollutant.

“When doing background reading, I was struck by how special this system seemed,” says Abigail Frost, an astronomer at ESO in Chile and lead author of the study published today in Science. The system, HD 148937, is located about 3800 light-years away from Earth in the direction of the Norma constellation. It is made up of two stars much more massive than the Sun and surrounded by a beautiful nebula, a cloud of gas and dust. “A nebula surrounding two massive stars is a rarity, and it really made us feel like something cool had to have happened in this system. When looking at the data, the coolness only increased.”

“After a detailed analysis, we could determine that the more massive star appears much younger than its companion, which doesn’t make any sense since they should have formed at the same time!” Frost says. The age difference — one star appears to be at least 1.5 million years younger than the other — suggests something must have rejuvenated the more massive star.

Another piece of the puzzle is the nebula surrounding the stars, known as NGC 6164/6165. It is 7500 years old, hundreds of times younger than both stars. The nebula also shows very high amounts of nitrogen, carbon and oxygen. This is surprising as these elements are normally expected deep inside a star, not outside; it is as if some violent event had set them free.

To unravel the mystery, the team assembled nine years’ worth of data from the PIONIER and GRAVITY instruments, both on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), located in Chile’s Atacama Desert. They also used archival data from the FEROS instrument at ESO’s La Silla Observatory.

“We think this system had at least three stars originally; two of them had to be close together at one point in the orbit whilst another star was much more distant,” explains Hugues Sana, a professor at KU Leuven in Belgium and the principal investigator of the observations. “The two inner stars merged in a violent manner, creating a magnetic star and throwing out some material, which created the nebula. The more distant star formed a new orbit with the newly merged, now-magnetic star, creating the binary we see today at the centre of the nebula.”

“The merger scenario was already in my head back in 2017 when I studied nebula observations obtained with the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Telescope,” adds co-author Laurent Mahy, currently a senior researcher at the Royal Observatory of Belgium. “Finding an age discrepancy between the stars suggests that this scenario is the most plausible one and it was only possible to show it with the new ESO data.”

This scenario also explains why one of the stars in the system is magnetic and the other is not — another peculiar feature of HD 148937 spotted in the VLTI data.

At the same time, it helps solve a long-standing mystery in astronomy: how massive stars get their magnetic fields. While magnetic fields are a common feature of low-mass stars like our Sun, more massive stars cannot sustain magnetic fields in the same way. Yet some massive stars are indeed magnetic.

Astronomers had suspected for some time that massive stars could acquire magnetic fields when two stars merge. But this is the first time researchers find such direct evidence of this happening. In the case of HD 148937, the merger must have happened recently. “Magnetism in massive stars isn’t expected to last very long compared to the lifetime of the star, so it seems we have observed this rare event very soon after it happened,” Frost adds.

The Words Matter: Impact and Prevention of Childhood Verbal Abuse conference marks the first time that experts from around the world have come together to focus attention on the lifetime damage of childhood verbal abuse and the need to develop solutions.

Childhood verbal abuse involves behaviours that can be detrimental to a child’s wellbeing, such as belittling, shouting and threatening language.

The new study, led by Professor Xiangming Fang (China Agricultural University and Georgia State University) used data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Violence Against Children Surveys, in four countries: Cambodia (1212 participants), Kenya (1099 participants), Colombia (1415 participants) and Moldova (906 participants), to analyse the effects of childhood verbal abuse on selected health outcomes, including mental distress, self-harm, drug use and problem drinking.

The study then estimated the Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY) lost (the total amount of healthy life years lost due to people dying prematurely or living with a disability caused by a common disease or health problem in the community) due to health outcomes attributed to childhood verbal abuse to estimate its economic burden.

These DALY losses were then converted into monetary value — assuming that one DALY was equal to the country’s per-capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The mean economic burden of childhood verbal abuse across the four countries was found to be 0.34% of GDP. When this figure was applied to global GDP, it equated to approximately $300 billion every year.

Meanwhile, the DALY losses for outcomes attributed to childhood verbal abuse were significantly great than corresponding estimates for breast cancer and liver cancer in the four countries studied, and similar to the Disability-Adjusted Life Years lost to hypertensive heart disease.

Conference Chair, Professor Peter Fonagy (UCL Psychology & Language Sciences), said: “Verbal abuse of children by adults is all too common, but is one of the most significant modifiable causes of life-long mental health disorders.

“Tackling it gives us a powerful lever to prevent mental health disorders and their enormous cost to both the UK and global economy.

“I am delighted that with the Words Matter charity, we have an organisation finally focusing on this problem. Bringing greater awareness to childhood verbal abuse has the potential to dramatically reduce the economic and psychological burden of psychiatric disorders.”

Previous research from experts at UCL and Wingate University* found that childhood verbal abuse can be as harmful as other forms of abuse and have significant adverse impacts on children’s mental and physical health and development — leading to anxiety, depression, eating disorders, self-harm, substance abuse and even suicide.

Professor Xiangming Fang said: “The economic burden of childhood verbal abuse by adults that we have quantified clearly highlights the shocking hidden cost of the damage it causes to children throughout their lifetime. However, this is likely a considerable underestimate given the impact of childhood verbal abuse on several outcomes including healthcare utilisation costs and legal system expenses, which were not included in the analysis due to data unavailability.

“There is clearly a significant opportunity for economic growth by ending childhood verbal abuse, and by revealing these figures, we hope this form of childhood maltreatment will be given the attention it deserves. Vital now is undertaking more research and devoting funds and resources to preventing it, so the cost to society can be reduced.”

Jessica Bondy, Founder of Words Matter, said: “For too long, childhood verbal abuse by adults has gone under the radar, yet it is all around us. We hope this conference helps put the issue firmly on the map and galvanises action. It is possible to bring an end to childhood verbal abuse with greater awareness, understanding and collaboration across the globe to devise solutions. We must act now, given the lifelong impact on children’s mental and physical health and wellbeing and the monumental cost to society. Let’s build children up, not knock them down, and create a better future for children.”

Tim Loughton MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children and former Children’s Minister said: “By convening this conference, the work of Words Matter and its expert advisers is filling a gap in understanding the harms that can be inflicted on children from the way adults communicate with them and the routes for prevention. Whilst we are all too familiar with the damage done to children as a result of physical violence, verbal abuse is more insidious and pervasive, impacting so many whose mental health has already been deeply affected due to the Covid pandemic.

“We all have a duty of care to treat children with respect and that includes the words and language we use with them. This conference highlights how much words really do matter and how if used poorly, they can have lasting implications for children and our economy.”

Former Health Minister and Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation and currently Opposition Whip, Lord Philip Hunt of Kings Heath said: “All children deserve to grow up happy and healthy, but millions are suffering verbal abuse by adults which has for far too long been hidden in the shadows. Thanks to the work of Words Matter, we now know that this is not only impacting children’s mental health and development but is also, as this new study shows, having a huge cost on society as a whole. We all want children to develop armed with the tools to lead confident and productive adult lives and the words they hear from adults are so important in building self-esteem and confidence. By shining a light on this abuse, lives can and will be changed.”

Study limitations

The $300 billion is likely a considerable underestimate given the impact of childhood verbal abuse on several outcomes, including healthcare utilisation costs and legal system expenses, which were not included in the analysis, due to data unavailability.

Additionally, costs associated with chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer were not taken into account.

Multiple risk factors can contribute to the occurrence of any disease. When attributing a disease to these factors the maximum attribution is capped at 100%. However, if multiple risk factors are involved and overlap, the sum of DALY estimates for all risk factors may exceed 100%. Failure to fully account for these inter-correlations could potentially result in overestimation of the figures instead.

The field lacks reliable longitudinal data to assess the long-term repercussions of childhood verbal abuse.

The absence of high-quality cohort studies that adopt a lifetime perspective in economic data estimation may lead to a substantial underestimation of the economic impact of childhood verbal abuse.

Prioritising the collection of longitudinal data on the consequences of childhood verbal abuse should be a primary focus of future efforts.