Tokyo [Japan], June 12 : Scientists in Japan have discovered that a natural compound found in a type of ginger called kencur can throw cancer cells into disarray by disrupting how they generate energy.
According to Osaka Metropolitan University, the finding opens new doors in the fight against cancer, showing how natural substances might help target cancer's hidden energy tricks.
While healthy cells use oxygen to make energy efficiently, cancer cells often rely on a backup method. This ginger-derived molecule doesn't attack that method directly, it shuts down the cells' fat-making machinery instead, which surprisingly causes the cells to ramp up their backup system even more.
For instance, human cells oxidise glucose to produce ATP (adenosine triphosphate), an energy source necessary for life.
Cancer cells produce ATP through glycolysis, which does not utilise oxygen even under conditions where oxygen is present, and convert glucose into pyruvic acid and lactic acid.
This method of producing ATP, known as the Warburg effect, is considered inefficient, thus raising questions as to why cancer cells choose this energy pathway to fuel their proliferation and survival.
In search of this energy catalyst, Associate Professor Akiko Kojima-Yuasa's team at Osaka Metropolitan University's Graduate School of Human Life and Ecology analysed the cinnamic acid ester ethyl p-methoxycinnamate, a main component of kencur ginger, and its mechanism of action.
In previous research, the team discovered that ethyl p-methoxycinnamate has inhibitory effects on cancer cells.
Furthering their study, the acid ester was administered to Ehrlich ascites tumour cells to assess which component of the cancer cells' energy pathway was being affected.
Results revealed that the acid ester inhibits ATP production by disrupting de novo fatty acid synthesis and lipid metabolism, rather than through glycolysis as commonly theorised.
Further, the researchers discovered acid ester-induced inhibition triggered increased glycolysis, which acted as a possible survival mechanism in the cells.
This adaptability was theorised to be attributed to ethyl p-methoxycinnamate's inability to induce cell death.
"These findings not only provide new insights that supplement and expand the theory of the Warburg effect, which can be considered the starting point of cancer metabolism research, but are also expected to lead to the discovery of new therapeutic targets and the development of new treatment methods," stated Professor Kojima-Yuasa.
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