http://www.thestar.com/Health/article/171616 http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-01/uoa-smo011007.php A molecule used for decades to combat metabolic diseases in children, may soon be available as an effective treatment for many forms of cancer, University of Alberta researchers are reporting. In results that “astounded” school scientists, the molecule, known as DCA, was shown to shrink lung, breast and brain tumours in both animal and human tissue experiments. The study is being published today in the journal Cancer Cell. “I think DCA can be selective for cancer because it attacks a fundamental process of cancer that is unique to cancer cells,” says Dr. Evangelos Michelakis, a professor in the Edmonton university’s medical school and a key study author. In particular, Michelakis says, the molecule appears to repair the damage cancers can cause to mitochondria, the intercellular structures that normally convert food into energy. Located in the cell’s cytoplasm, outside its nucleus, critical mitochondrial functions can be suppressed in cancerous cells. “Cancer cells actively suppress their mitochondria, which alters their metabolism and this appears to offer cancer cells a significant advantage in growth compared to normal cells,” Michelakis said in a news release on the study. Cancer cells bypass mitochondrial energy production, instead using intense glucose conversion to feed themselves, lead study author Sebastien Bonnet said in an interview. But because mitochondria also regulate cell death, their alteration can make the cancer cells far harder to kill off. “When a cell is getting too old or doesn’t function properly, the mitochondria are going to induce the cell death,” says Bonnet, a postdoctoral fellow at the university. “In cancer, because the mitochondria are not working properly…the cancer cells cannot die, they just keep going and keep going and keep going.” Bonnet says DCA - or dichloroacetate - appears able to reverse the mitochondrial changes in a wide range of cancers, making the malignant cells more vulnerable to normal death programming. Until recently, researchers believed the damage to mitochondria in cancer cells was permanent. But DCA, which activates a critical enzyme, was shown to reverse the damage and restore normal functions in many cancers. Bonnet says DCA may also provide an effective cancer treatment because it is easily absorbed - ensuring it can reach areas that other drugs cannot. Brain tumours, for example, are notoriously hard to treat with chemotherapies. As well, because it’s been used to combat other ailments - like lactic acid build-up in children and heart ischemia --Bonnet says DCA has been shown to have few toxic effects. As well, he says, its previous use in for other diseases means it can be immediately tested on human cancer patients. Unlike other cancer drugs, DCA did not appear to have any negative effect on normal cells. A manufactured molecule, DCA is widely available at “every chemistry store”, Bonnet says. And, because it is not patented by a pharmaceutical company, it could provide an extremely inexpensive cancer therapy. “To treat the rats (in lab experiments) one dose of DCA is 0.7 cents per day per rat,” he says. That would translate into “pennies a day” in human trials and treatments.
