Amazing discovery! A sugar can kill cancer cells!

, June 27, 2020 /PRNewswire-BiovalleyBIOON/-- Like any cell in the body, cancer cells need sugar -- glucose -- to fuel cell proliferation and growthIn particular, cancer cells metabolize glucose much faster than normal cellsHowever, researchers in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Southern California, Vitby, found a common weakness in cancer cells: sugar inflexibilityThat is, when cancer cells come into contact with a different type of sugar-semilactic, the cells fail to adapt and diethe discovery, led by Dingsing Zheng, a doctoral student at Nicholas Graham's Lab, an assistant professor of chemical engineering and materials science, could be important for new metabolic therapies for cancerThe study was recently published in the journal Cell SciencePicture Source:Journal of Cell Sciencethis paper describes cancer-causing genes, the genes that cause cancer, that can also cause cancer cells to become inflexible about changes in the sugar supplyNormally, cells grow by metabolizing glucose, but most normal cells can also grow with semi-lactoseHowever, the team found that cells with the common cancer-causing gene AKT could not process semi-lactose and would die when exposed to itZheng says semi-lactose is structurally similar to the glucose that helps cancer cells grow, but there are some differencesExposing cells to semi-lactose forces them to perform more oxidation metabolism, using oxygen to convert sugar into energy, rather than sugar-fermented metabolism, which uses glucose to get energy, Graham saidNormal cells can metabolize glucose and semi-lactose, but the AKT signaling pathway is activated by cancer cells (usually found inbreast cancer cells) and not "We haven't seen studies of semi-lactose in the context of cancer to see if a particular mutation causes cancer, leading to better or worse cell transitions between processing glycoenzyme metabolism and oxidative metabolism," Graham said "
Zheng said the discovery does not mean that the semi-lactose itself is effective in treating AKT-type cancer cells, but it does reveal a fundamental flaw in these cells, namely, the oxidation state that causes the cells to die "What we're trying to do is use a systematic approach to understand this, so we can use some type of targeted drug or gene therapy that can induce similar effects and force cells into oxidation," Zheng said "Semi-lactose is a model system, and we're using it to identify these weaknesses in cells to guide future drug development," Graham said "Our lab will focus on trying to do this with specialized drugs." team's findings also show that while the oxidation process caused by semi-lactose does cause cell death in AKT-type cancer cells, semi-lactose does not kill cells when cells are given different genetic mutations, MYC "If you have a drug that inhibits glycoenzyme, you should give it to patients with the AKT mutation," Graham said But you can't give it to patients with MYC mutations, because in theory it doesn't work for those MYC cells researchers also found that some cancer cells began to reappear after about 15 days in the half-lactose "Maybe there is a small subpopulation of cells that are resistant to semi-lactose, " Zheng said "Another possibility is that some cancer cells are very resilient and, after two weeks of treatment with semi-lactose, they adapt and reprogram themselves." Picture Source: Journal of Cell Science systems biology methods for cancer treatment are different from traditional therapies such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy because it targets the metabolic processes of cancer cells Its goal is to identify drugs that do not have the side effects of traditional chemotherapy Traditional chemotherapy also kills healthy cells, leading to side effects such as hair loss However, in many cancer targeted metabolic treatments, some recurrences are common and these treatments show strong initial results before the partial recurrence of the cells AKT tumors can be targeted by such metabolic therapy to reduce tumor at an early stage, but this treatment needs to be accompanied by another cocktail of medications to prevent recurrence, prevent cancer cell mutations and adapt, Graham said Zheng and Graham said the latest research would not have been possible without the work of undergraduates Jonathan Sussman (Biomedical Engineering) and Matthew Jeon (Chemical Engineering and Materials Science) They helped complete cell counting tasks and proteomics -- proteins involved in cancer cell metabolism Next, Graham says, the team's biggest challenge is to find a combination of therapies that test cancer cells in the AKT gene to produce more effective treatments (BioValleyBioon.com) References: A sugar hit to help destroy cancer cells
D-Zhenging et al, AKT but not MYC promots sreactive sie-chi-chi-mediated cell-death-in-oxidative culture, Journal of Cell Science (2020) DOI: 10.1242/jcs.239277