It has long been known how quickly cancer cells spread and sugar is a product feeding them. MIT have discovered that amino acids are in fact worse for encouraging the proliferation of cancer cells. This knowledge should enable the production of new cancer-fighting drugs. Biology professor Matthew Vander Heiden believes that the way to target cancer is to understand how cells reproduce.
The Warburg effect has been known since the 1920s and this states that cancer cells make energy in a different way to other cells. Cancer cells do not require oxygen to reproduce but other than that, little is known about the path they follow.
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Mammals consume a variety of food, so it is hard to determine what should be limited according to Vander Heiden. Cells were cultivated and tests carried out to determine what was responsible and by weighing cells after adding different nutrients, worked out how much increase was determined by what food product. Amino acids were found to make up as much as 40% of the size.
Jared Rutter of the University of Utah was not part of the research but states that the experiments confirm many understandings surrounding the cells growth. He added that the team from MIT had been rigorous in their assessments and Vander Heiden added that there is logic to the findings. He is now carrying on his research in an attempt to discover why glucose that changes to lactate allows amino acids to cause more cells to develop.
Original Story, Anne Trafton | MIT News