Johns Hopkins researchers found a fat and sugar combination that eliminates cancer cells and prevents new ones from developing. The new approach to treating cancer uses the fatty acid generated from high-fiber diets, and has proven highly effective at killing cancerous tissue in the petri dish.
For the past 20 to 30 years, researchers tested the use of the fatty acid butyrate as a means of attacking cancer cells, according to a release from Johns Hopkins University. The fatis generated by bacteria found in the stomach when people digest high-fiber foods. Researchers traced the fat and concluded that it prevents the growth of cancer cells, but only in extremely high doses. Linking butyrate to common sugars, such as glucose, stopped the growth of cancer cells but was not effective in killing them.
Hopkins researchers found that attaching butyrate to a different type of sugar showed positive results. They used an active sugar that not only stops the growth of cancer cells, but kills the existing ones as well.
“We didn?t think that [other researchers] chose the right partner molecule. Our insight was to select the sugar partner to serve not as just a passive carrier but as additional ammunition in the fight against cancer,” Kevin J. Yarema, an assistant professor of biochemical engineering at Hopkins, said in a statement.
Once inside the cell, the sugar is processed into sialic acid, which plays key roles in cancer biology, according to the statement. Butyrate orchestrates the expression of genes responsible for halting the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells.
The fat and sugar work together to attack the cancer cells without harming the surrounding region.
Although researchers tested the combination on about 10 to 15 different types of cancers in the laboratory, they are focusing on testing this method with metastatic cancer ? those that have spread beyond the initial tumor.
Johns Hopkins researchers are preparing for animal testing.
