Nature: High fat and low carbon water can inhibit tumor growth?

Release date: 2018-07-06

The "codone diet" is a term that has emerged in recent years. This type of diet promotes high fat and low carbon water, which sounds very common sense. But many studies have shown that such a diet can actually bring health benefits. Not long ago, we also reported how the ketogenic diet can benefit the brain. This interesting study was also published in Cell.
Just over a month later, the ketogenic diet has once again reached the top academic journals. In today's Nature magazine, a joint team from Columbia University and Cornell University published a two-page paper on the subject. Their latest study, though short, is significant – it shows that the ketogenic diet can improve the cancer resistance of some patients.

At first glance, this is somewhat "unscientific". We have all heard of cancer diets in many false advertisements, but most of them have proven to be ineffective. The paper of Nature is to give a turn to the diet?

It's not that simple. In order to understand this diet, we must first understand the classic protein PI3K. Scientists have long discovered that mutations in PI3K can cause cancer. In fact, this is one of the most common causes of cancer in humans. In response to this protein, PI3K inhibitors have been developed early to control and treat cancer. However, the effects of these drugs are not stable and there are large fluctuations in different patients. The researchers also felt confused.

Subsequent studies have found that because PI3K itself plays a crucial role in the cell, once its function is inhibited, many functions of the cell will be disordered. For example, under the action of PI3K inhibitors, glucose metabolism in various tissues may be abnormal, leading to an increase in blood sugar.

Researchers speculate that perhaps this is why the efficacy of PI3K is unstable. We know that tumor growth requires a lot of energy, and rising blood sugar gives them a chance. To make matters worse, an increase in blood glucose induces an increase in insulin levels, and insulin induces activation of the PI3K signaling pathway. This will greatly reduce the efficacy of PI3K inhibitors. Both of these assumptions are supported by data in both mouse and in vitro experiments.

â–² ketogenic diet can lower blood sugar, and even more than the diabetes "magic" metformin (Source: "Nature")

So, is there any way to change this unfortunate fact? The researchers thought about the regulation of diet and drugs. For the former, the ketogenic diet is undoubtedly a potential choice. Previously, many studies have shown that the ketogenic diet can quickly consume the storage of hepatic glycogen, thereby reducing the increase in blood glucose caused by PI3K inhibitors, increasing the body's sensitivity to insulin and reducing insulin levels in the body.

The potential of the ketogenic diet was also verified in mouse experiments. Studies have shown that this diet can significantly inhibit the rise in blood sugar and insulin levels, similar to another class of hypoglycemic agents, SGLT2 inhibitors. Interestingly, the common diabetes treatment "medicine" metformin did not have such a good effect. These results indicate that the ketogenic diet is indeed expected to fill the short plate of PI3K inhibitors.

â–² ketogenic diet combined with PI3K inhibitors can significantly prolong the survival of mice (Source: Nature)

In further research, scientists have shown that a ketogenic diet combined with a PI3K inhibitor can significantly reduce tumor size and prolong survival in mice. This shows that diet and medication can complement each other and control cancer.

But the researchers also pointed out that despite the excellent results, the study is still in its early stages and it is still unclear whether it can be translated into human clinical results. In addition, the ketogenic diet is not a panacea. For other cancer types, this type of diet may also cause harm. But at least, we have seen the potential of such a diet in some cancer models. If the results of this experiment can be repeated in human trials, perhaps in the future, diet structure will become the standard for cancer treatment.

Reference materials:

[1] Suppression of insulin feedback enhances the efficacy of PI3K inhibitors

Original title: Today Nature: High fat and low carbon water can inhibit tumor growth?

Source: Academic Jingwei

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