Cancer can outwit the human immune system and resist treatments – including chemotherapy, which can wreak damage of its own on organs and tissues. Now a team of German and Swedish bioscientists is testing a way to kill cancer cells by denying them energy.
Until recently, cancer was thought to grow without needing mitochondria, the structures inside cells that produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the basic fuel that cells need to function. Oncologists now know that malignant cells are as dependent on mitochondria as any other organism is. Interrupting cancer cells’ ability to make ATP would let them “run out of gas” and die. But past drugs targeting malignant cells’ mitochondria also destroyed those same power generators in healthy cells.
The European research team turned attention to mitochondria’s DNA, which is controlled, in part, by a protein called POLRMT. Cells growing rapidly, such as stem cells and cancer cells, are especially sensitive to the presence or absence of POLRMT; but cells already formed into bone, skin, or organs are much less so. Knowing that, the researchers concocted a biochemical compound that disrupts POLRMT.
No POLRMT, no ATP from cancer cells’ mitochondria; no ATP, no energy; no energy, no more cancer cells. Tested in mice, the compound slashed cancer cells’ growth rate while not creating serious side effects in the animals. The treatment can be continued long enough to be significantly effective against at least some kinds of cancer before starting to show damage to healthy cells, the scientists found.
TRENDPOST: Cancer ultimately will be defeated not by radiation, surgery, and synthetic chemicals but by harnessing the body’s arsenal of proteins, enzymes, and other compounds to restore health while minimizing side effects of treatment. Cancer researchers are devoting more resources to pursuing this course because results are showing its effectiveness.
