Illuminating The Shadows: Unveiling The Concealed Hazards And Intriguing Links Between Light Pollution And Cancer
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Abstract
Shift workers who work at night have been shown to be more at risk for lung, breast, colorectal, and prostate cancers when exposed to artificial light at night (ALAN). Human cancer has been linked to light pollution's disruption of the circadian cycles. Light deprivation reduces carcinogenesis, but an impairment of pineal gland function caused by exposure to a steady light regimen enhanced carcinogenesis. Due to its capacity to stop the cyclic nightly generation of melatonin, artificial light exposure has been hypothesised to be a risk factor for breast cancer in these industrialised nations. Wonder chemical melatonin, sometimes known as the "hormone
of darkness," is thought to have a role in many physiological functions and anomalies, such as the regulation of sleep, circadian rhythms, retinal physiology, seasonal reproductive cycles, immune activity, antioxidation and cancer. Telomerase is impacted by light pollution in a number of ways, including indirectly through melatonin. The expression of Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase (TERT) mRNA is first inhibited by melatonin. Second, by blocking NFκB p50/p65 nucleus translocation and their binding to the promoters of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), melatonin increases the antitumor effect of a drug similar to vemurafenib. This suppresses the expression of iNOS and hTERT.
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