A high potency molecule named Glutor can block cancer cells feeding on glucose, and in combination with a glutaminase inhibitor CB-839, which blocked the metabolism of fall-back fuel glutamate, cancer cell growth and proliferation stopped.
Cancer cells love glucose, they burn their way through it like an athlete’s muscles burn glucose (writes Alex Berezow PhD from the American Council on Science and Health). The process is called glycolysis. If they run out of glucose, cancer cells can supplement their diet with glutamine, a non-essential amino acid, which normally nourishes cells in the form of glutamate. This has provoked a theory that to stop cancer one simply needs to block the import of sugar and the metabolism of glutamine.
Now a team of researchers have found a high potency glucose inhibitor molecule called Glutor, which blocks the uptake of glucose by cancer cells. Significantly, Glutor had no effect on healthy cells which use different uptake proteins. The September 2019 research report (1) told of 44 different cancer cell lines where the glucose uptake was stopped by Glutor. Next they blocked an enzyme, Glutaminase, responsible for metabolising glutamine by using the inhibitor CB-839. Not surprisingly, combining the two treatments created what reviewer William Katt (2) called a metabolic crisis in cancer cells and stopped cancer cell growth and impeding proliferation.
Of course there’s a problem. There are no existing FDA–approved treatments for blocking glucose or glutamine in cancer cells. As always such chemotherapeutic treatments are not without side-effects and so extensive trials need to be conducted.
Still the theory works in practice – cut glucose in the first place to halt fuel to the cancer cell, then stop any alternative secondary fuel supplies produced from glutamine.
Many cancer patients aim to cut their glucose by correcting their diet, despite the mis-information they might receive in their hospitals. But how might they go about cutting Glutaminase? We tell you in our article on 'Glutamine, glutamate and cancer' - and we tell you about a common 'gut health' food that you really should avoid if you have cancer.
Go to: 10 natural compounds to inhibit glutaminase
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References
- Elena S. Reckzeh et al. "Inhibition of Glucose Transporters and Glutaminase Synergistically Impairs Tumor Cell Growth" Cell Chemical Biology 26 (9)1214-1228.E25.
- William P. Katt et al. "Starving the Devourer: Cutting Cancer Off from Its Favorite Foods" Cell Chemical Biology 26 (9): 1197-1199
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