Yesterday (22nd), a new paper published in "Nature" brought new ideas to the treatment of cancer. This research team from the United Kingdom discovered that "eating sugar" can inhibit the growth of tumors. growth, thereby eliminating cancer.
A team from Cancer Research UK announced on the Nature website that they found that taking a simple simple sugar orally can have a significant inhibitory effect on tumors. "This has the potential to be a simple, safe anti-cancer therapy that can be used in a variety of cancer types," team members said.
The magical mannose (mannose)
In order to divide and proliferate rapidly, cancer cells have always had a very high demand for sugar. Starting from this point, the research team pointed out that if treatments could be developed to target the sugar uptake needs of cancer cells, it would be possible to inhibit their growth.
The team members then began to evaluate whether cancer cells are open to all sugars. They found that although most sugars are energy sources for cancer cell growth, one type is called mannose. of simple sugars, can significantly inhibit the growth of cancer cells.
Researchers found that under the action of mannose, glucose in tumor cells increased significantly, which shows that mannose can affect glucose metabolism. We know that in order to grow, cancer cells need to consume large amounts of glucose. If glucose can only be stored but cannot be used, the growth of cancer cells will naturally be inhibited.
Animal testing works too!
However, the results of cell experiments do not necessarily have clinical value. Mannose can inhibit the growth of cancer cells in in vitro experiments, but can it also have an inhibitory effect on cancer in animals?
The team members further allowed the mice with tumors to take mannose orally. Then, the scientists injected isotope-labeled glucose into these mice to observe whether the sugar could be absorbed. As they expected, glucose metabolism was also significantly inhibited in the mice.
In normal cells, glucose metabolism is inhibited, but what about in tumor cells? Next, the researchers added mannose to the mice's diet and injected tumor cells subcutaneously into the mice. Studies have shown that mannose intake does not affect the weight or health of mice, but it can significantly inhibit the growth of tumors.
The researchers further pointed out that if mannose is used in combination with chemotherapy, it can have a better anti-cancer effect. Mice that received the combination therapy had significantly longer survival compared with mice that only received mannose.
In addition, last year’s research also pointed out that mannose can regulate the immune system and help the organism prevent and inhibit the occurrence and development of autoimmune diseases, including type 1 diabetes and asthma. This disease is widely found in cranberries. The sugars found in berries and other plants are of great benefit to the human body.