Consuming
baking soda may help immunotherapy drugs to fight difficult-to-treat tumors.
This cheap and simple intervention may eventually improve current cancer
treatments.
Baking soda could help
to boost immunotherapy.
Within tumors, large
portions are deprived of oxygen. Scientists know that these hypoxic regions
tend to be the most resistant to treatment.
If a cell is unable to
access adequate oxygen, it slows down and enters what is known as a quiescent
state.
The molecular switch
mTORC1 is responsible for assessing the situation before telling the cell
whether or not it should divide.
If mTORC1 is not
present, the cell's internal processes are shut down. Deep within tumors,
mTORC1 activity is almost non-existent.
Baking soda, acid, and cancer
New research delves
deeper into this mechanism and finds an incredibly simple way to reverse it:
baking soda.
The study took place
at the Wistar Institute and the University of Pennsylvania, both of which are
located in Philadelphia. The scientists published their results this week in
the journal Cell.
Lysosomes, the
minuscule bags of enzymes that break down proteins and other biomolecules, were
found to play a key role.
The lysosomes of
interest are usually situated next to the nucleus. However, when conditions are
more acidic — which develops during hypoxia — protein motors transport
lysosomes carrying mTOR to other locations.
This movement of mTOR
away from the nucleus also transports it away from a protein called RHEB, which
is essential for it to function. Without its primary activator, mTOR activity
is reduced, the cell's processes slow down, and most metabolic activity stops.
The study was led by
Chi Van Dang, and he explains why this occurs, saying, "Cells don't want
to make proteins or other biomolecules when they're under stress. They want to
slow things down and only awaken when things return to normal."
Boosting immunotherapy
When a cell enters
this quiescent state, cancer drugs
are much less effective. So, the researchers wanted to see if it could be
overturned. They found that, when mice were given baking soda in their drinking
water, the acidity of the quiescent regions of tumors was reversed.
Once this had
occurred, lysosomes were sent back toward the nucleus, mTOR was activated by
RHEB, and cellular processes were switched back on.
Dang explains what the
scientists saw after mice had consumed baking soda, saying, "[T]he
entire tumor lights up with mTOR activity. The prediction would
be that by reawakening these cells, you could make the tumor far more sensitive
to therapy."
"The concept is so easy. It's
not some $100,000 per year drug. It's literally just baking soda."
Chi Van Dang
Cancer immunotherapy
has been demonstrated to be less effective in acidic conditions because T cell
activation is reduced, so this finding could have important ramifications.
Acidity's role in
cancer progression and treatment is a fledgling area of research, which means
that much more work will surely follow. Dang and his team plan to continue
their experimentation, focusing on how acidity impacts immunotherapy.
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