A new approach to treating brain cancer forces glucose-starved cancer tumor cells to burn themselves out. The method was developed in the laboratory of Prof. Barak Rothblatt at Ben-Gurion University in the Negev and is based on a decade of research
A new approach to treating brain cancer forces glucose-starved cancer tumor cells to burn themselves out. The method was developed in the laboratory of Prof. Barak Rothblatt at Ben-Gurion University in the Negev and is based on a decade of research. The research findings were published in the journal nature communications.
Cancer cells love sugar. This fact helps in the diagnosis of cancer metastases through a PET scan. In this method, radioactive sugar is injected into the patient and since cancer loves sugar and is very efficient at sucking it from the blood, the radioactive sugar accumulates in the tumor. In addition, when measuring how much sugar is in the tumor compared to healthy tissue, less sugar can be found in the tumor. Therefore the question arises, how do cancer cells overcome the lack of sugar and manage to survive and thrive? If we know what the mechanism is that enables survival in sugar starvation, we can damage starved cancer cells with drugs and preserve the healthy tissue cells that are not lacking in sugar.
A research group he led Prof. Barak Rothblatt From the Department of Life Sciences and the National Institute of Biotechnology in the Negev (NIBN) at Ben-Gurion University in the Negev in collaboration Dr Gabriel Leprevier, from the University of Dusseldorf in Germany, found that cancer cells amplify even more strongly a mechanism conserved in evolution from mammals to fungi, which aims to enable overcoming hunger for sugar.
When we have a lot of energy in the body we produce fat and when the body is hungry we burn it. The research group discovered that the 4EBP protein makes it possible to regulate the rate at which the cell produces fat according to its energy state. Using genetic manipulation, the researchers created cells that had little 4EBP and found that they did not survive sugar starvation. That is, cancer cells without 4EBP die when starved for sugar and this action even impairs their ability to produce tumors when transplanted into mice.
Sugar starvation is particularly interesting in the context of brain tumors because there is very little sugar in the cerebrospinal fluid and cancer cells growing in the brain need to be equipped with mechanisms that allow them to cope with sugar starvation. When the researchers checked a clinical database of brain tumors, they discovered that the gene that codes for the 4EBP protein is highly active in these tumors. Therefore, they took cells extracted from brain tumors, silenced the gene and transplanted the silenced cells into the brains of mice. The survival of the mice implanted in the brains of control cells was significantly less than those implanted in the brains of the cells in which the silenced 4EBP, which suggests that the gene contributes to the aggressiveness of the tumor.
"Our discovery regarding glucose starvation and the role of antioxidants opens a therapeutic window for the search for a molecule that can treat brain cancer," explained Prof. Rothblatt. "Such treatment may also be effective for other types of low-sugar crops. This is a significant step on the way to personalized medicine and treatments that do not affect healthy cells like chemotherapy and radiation."
Together with BGN Technologies, the technology commercialization company of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and with the support of the National Institute of Biotechnology in the Negev (NIBN), the researchers are working on developing a molecule that will damage the EBP4 protein as a future treatment for cancer that has a hunger for sugar and especially brain cancer.
The research group also included: Dr. Tal Levy and Dr. Khola Alasad from the Department of Life Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
This research (1436/19) was supported by the National Science Foundation (ISF.
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Comments
Listen, you bunch of dumb and stupid scientists, you are only now discovering that "cancer" is a disease that grows as much industrial sugar is consumed???, stupid!!!! You had years to find out about this matter and only now are you releasing the information to the public, just a shame to all the doctors, a system of donkeys with clothes, industrial sugar and carbonated drinks only "fuel" this shit, throw away all the shit you have at home and do Fast Detoxing like they do for drug addicts. And you will see amazing results, your body will only want healthy things and the sugar industry will fall into the abyss because you will not want more sugar and your body will not want more either
'with' instead of 'if' in the sentence: "that enable them to cope with hunger for sugar"
Perhaps this is an opportunity to raise awareness of how unhealthy sugar is in Western consumption and certainly of all kinds of marginal treats for cancer patients in the form of candy deliveries