Starving Cancer By Cutting Off Its Favorite Foods, Glucose And Glutamine

[Andy]

Your body cells, particularly neurons, love the sugar glucose. This is the reason that your body closely regulates the level of glucose in your blood. Your brain would literally starve without it. If you do not consume enough carbohydrates in your diet, your body will synthesize the glucose you need.

Unfortunately, cancer also loves glucose. It loves it so much that cancer cells are willing to burn through glucose as quickly as possible, similar to the way muscle cells burn through glucose during rigorous exercise (a process known as glycolysis). Cancer cells also supplement their "diet" with glutamine, an amino acid found in proteins.

In order to implement this metabolic shift, cancer cells put more glucose transporters (which import glucose) into their membranes and rely on glutamine to satisfy other nutritional requirements. This has led to the hypothesis that blocking the import of glucose and the metabolism of glutamine could serve as powerful weapons against cancer. In other words, starving cancer cells of their favorite foods could inhibit tumor growth.

https://www.acsh.org/news/2019/10/0...ts-favorite-foods-glucose-and-glutamine-14314

 

[Dolphin]

Of particular interest to me since I started supplementing with Glutamine following reading this study:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/30108163/?i=2&from=/30244201/related

Randomised placebo-controlled trial of dietary glutamine supplements for postinfectious irritable bowel syndrome.
Randomized controlled trial
Zhou Q, et al. Gut. 2019.
Show full citation
Abstract
BACKGROUND: More effective treatments are needed for patients with postinfectious, diarrhoea-predominant, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D). Accordingly, we conducted a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 8-week-long trial to assess the efficacy and safety of oral glutamine therapy in patients who developed IBS-D with increased intestinal permeability following an enteric infection.

METHODS: Eligible adults were randomised to glutamine (5 g/t.i.d.) or placebo for 8 weeks. The primary end point was a reduction of ≥50 points on the Irritable Bowel Syndrome Severity Scoring System (IBS-SS). Secondary endpoints included: raw IBS-SS scores, changes in daily bowel movement frequency, stool form (Bristol Stool Scale) and intestinal permeability.

RESULTS: Fifty-four glutamine and 52 placebo subjects completed the 8-week study. The primary endpoint occurred in 43 (79.6%) in the glutamine group and 3 (5.8%) in the placebo group (a 14-fold difference). Glutamine also reduced all secondary endpoint means: IBS-SS score at 8 weeks (301 vs 181, p<0.0001), daily bowel movement frequency (5.4 vs 2.9±1.0, p<0.0001), Bristol Stool Scale (6.5 vs 3.9, p<0.0001) and intestinal permeability (0.11 vs 0.05; p<0.0001). 'Intestinal hyperpermeability' (elevated urinary lactulose/mannitol ratios) was normalised in the glutamine but not the control group. Adverse events and rates of study-drug discontinuation were low and similar in the two groups. No serious adverse events were observed.

CONCLUSIONS: In patients with IBS-D with intestinal hyperpermeability following an enteric infection, oral dietary glutamine supplements dramatically and safely reduced all major IBS-related endpoints. Large randomised clinical trials (RCTs) should now be done to validate these findings, assess quality of life benefits and explore pharmacological mechanisms.

TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT01414244; Results.

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
PMID
30108163 [Indexed for MEDLINE]

Edited to add: I see the article isn’t necessarily talking about dietary consumption so this might be irrelevant.

 

[TigerLilea]

What’s the link between sugar and cancer?
The claim

Sugar feeds cancer – and it makes cancer grow faster.

The truth
Your body’s cells consume sugar as they grow and divide, but eating sugar does not make cancer cells grow faster.

All cells require sugar (glucose) for energy. Your body can also store sugar to use as energy later. Your body needs this sugar to function normally. Canadians consume thousands of dietary components every day, so it’s hard to pinpoint precise links between diet and cancer.

When sugar can increase your risk of cancer
Eating lots of foods that contain sugar means you’re more likely to gain weight. Research shows that obesity increases your cancer risk. Obesity may cause changes in hormone levels which may also put you at a greater risk of developing cancer. A healthy body weight will be different for everyone, so talk to your doctor about yours.

The Canadian Cancer Society is committed to sharing important information about cancer risk to Canadians and will continue to monitor research in this area.

https://www.cancer.ca/en/prevention...ions/myths-and-controversies/sugar/?region=on

 

[Amw66]

From 2010
https://nutritionandmetabolism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-7075-7-7

 

[Amw66]

 

[Andy]

What’s the link between sugar and cancer?
The claim

Sugar feeds cancer – and it makes cancer grow faster.

The truth
Your body’s cells consume sugar as they grow and divide, but eating sugar does not make cancer cells grow faster.

All cells require sugar (glucose) for energy. Your body can also store sugar to use as energy later. Your body needs this sugar to function normally. Canadians consume thousands of dietary components every day, so it’s hard to pinpoint precise links between diet and cancer.

When sugar can increase your risk of cancer
Eating lots of foods that contain sugar means you’re more likely to gain weight. Research shows that obesity increases your cancer risk. Obesity may cause changes in hormone levels which may also put you at a greater risk of developing cancer. A healthy body weight will be different for everyone, so talk to your doctor about yours.

The Canadian Cancer Society is committed to sharing important information about cancer risk to Canadians and will continue to monitor research in this area.

https://www.cancer.ca/en/prevention...ions/myths-and-controversies/sugar/?region=on

I think you are misunderstanding. The article I shared doesn't claim that there is a link between sugar and cancer, but that cancers use the glucose in a patients system to sustain growth, and that inhibiting the cancers ability to use glucose will obviously cause it serious problems.

The paper the article is based on

Highlights
• Development of the GLUT-1-3-selective inhibitor Glutor to suppress glucose uptake
• Glutor potently induces cell death in 2D and 3D cancer cell culture
• Glutor-induced hypoglycemia upregulates GLUT-1/-3
• Glutor and GLS inhibitor CB-839 synergistically inhibit cell growth
Summary
Cancer cells sustain growth by altering their metabolism to accelerated aerobic glycolysis accompanied by increased glucose demand and employ glutamine as additional nutrient source. This metabolic adaptation induces upregulation of glucose transporters GLUT-1 and -3, and simultaneous targeting of both transporters and of glutamine metabolism may offer a promising approach to inhibit cancer cell growth. We describe the discovery of the very potent glucose uptake inhibitor Glutor, which targets glucose transporters GLUT-1, -2, and -3, attenuates glycolytic flux and potently and selectively suppresses growth of a variety of cancer cell lines. Co-treatment of colon cancer cells with Glutor and glutaminase inhibitor CB-839 very potently and synergistically inhibits cancer cell growth. Such a dual inhibition promises to be particularly effective because it targets the metabolic plasticity as well as metabolic rescue mechanisms in cancer cells.

Paywall, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2451945619302065
Scihub, https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.chembiol.2019.06.005

ETA: And given that glycolosis seems to be inhibited in ME patients I thought this way found to inhibit use of glucose could be of interest.

 

[Snow Leopard]

I think you are misunderstanding. The article I shared doesn't claim that there is a link between sugar and cancer, but that cancers use the glucose in a patients system to sustain growth, and that inhibiting the cancers ability to use glucose will obviously cause it serious problems.

The problem is that this cannot be easily achieved in a dietary manner without starving yourself. Eating less sugar won't make much difference.

 

[Andy]

The problem is that this cannot be easily achieved in a dietary manner without starving yourself. Eating less sugar won't make much difference.

Which is fine as the article doesn't advocate for that at all.

The first part of the strategy involves treating cancer with Glutor, which will shut down glucose metabolism. Indeed, the authors showed that 44 different cancer cell lines were potently inhibited by Glutor in vitro. Non-cancerous cell lines were not inhibited.

The second leg of their strategy involves blocking an enzyme responsible for metabolizing glutamine. When the treatments are combined, they act together to suppress cancer cell growth.