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Diet with controlled intake of amino acids helps with cancer therapy
Unfortunately, in today's society, cancer is a very common disease that costs many lives every year. Researchers have now discovered that a controlled diet that limits the intake of certain amino acids can be an effective adjunctive treatment for some cancer patients.
Scientists at the Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute and the University of Glasgow found in their study that a controlled diet without specific amino acids slows the development of tumors. The physicians published the results of the study in the journal "Nature".
The treatment of cancer usually turns out to be extremely complicated. Experts found that a diet without the inclusion of certain amino acids can help in the effective treatment of cancer. (Image: crevis / fotolia.com) Nutrition without serine and glycine can support traditional cancer treatments
The removal of two non-essential amino acids from the diet appears to help in the treatment of cancer. If serine and glycine were not present in the diet of laboratory mice, the development of existing tumors slowed, the authors of the study explain. Such a special diet could make the traditional treatment of cancer more effective, experts say.
Special diet makes cancer cells for certain chemicals
The researchers also found that their development slows the development of lymphoma and colorectal cancer in mice that are fed a diet without serine and glycine. The limited form of nutrition additionally causes some cancer cells to become more susceptible to chemicals known as reactive oxygen species, the researchers explain. The same chemicals are also used in chemotherapy or radiotherapy. This effect suggests that treating cancer patients with this type of diet could be more effective in killing cancer cells, the doctors add.
Amino acids are important for health and well-being
Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. The authors of the study warn against the fact that humans independently renounce proteins in their diet. In general, the diet of humans is very complex. Proteins form the main source of all amino acids. They are essential for health and well-being, experts say. For this reason, people should not simply stop taking special amino acids by consuming only one particular type of home-cooked diet, says author Karen Vousden of Cancer Research UK.
Nutritional change should be done with the help of experts
The special type of restricted diet is a short-term measure and must be carefully controlled by experts and physicians, explain the researchers. Only in this way can the safety of changing the diet be guaranteed.
Effects must be more closely examined on humans
The author also stated that the next important step would be clinical trials to further investigate the effects of nutrition without the specific amino acids. Thus, it can be determined whether this type of diet in humans actually leads to a slower tumor growth, as it does in mice.
Further research is needed
Developing a diet without the two amino acids is quite difficult, the researchers say. Also, the special form of nutrition must first be tested on healthy people. This way, medical professionals can determine how compatible such a diet is and how easy it is to maintain this type of diet over a longer period of time. In addition, it must be determined how this change in diet affects the levels of the two amino acids in the body, the researchers add.
Special diet is less effective on an activated Kras gene
Physicians also need to find out which patients are most likely to benefit from such a form of nutrition. For example, the researchers found in their study that a special diet was less effective in tumors when there was an activated so-called Kras gene found in most people with pancreatic cancer.
Changing diets could save people from taking additional medicines
The special diet seems to be a fairly safe and gentle way to supplement conventional therapies, the researchers explain. In other words, you do not have to take more drugs to treat the disease, according to author Karen H. Vousden of the Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute in Glasgow. (As)