Methionine restriction may improve aggressive brain cancer prognosis in children (Essential amino acid restriction increased life expectancy “nearly 50%”)

Medical Xpress / University of Pittsburgh / Nature Cancer ^ | Apr. 14, 2022 | Stephen Mack, et al

[ConservativeMind]

Many solid tumors can be carefully excised, but others, such as diffuse midline gliomas, or DMGs, are much trickier. Children who have been diagnosed with a DMG tumor are projected to live for less than a year.

Physician-scientists discovered that DMG tumors are uniquely dependent on methionine—an amino acid that humans must receive from food.

Fortunately, DMG cells may have a special vulnerability that could be exploited for therapeutic benefit. Careful analysis of those cells' genetic code revealed that they have a unique feature—a mutation in proteins that provide structural support to the DNA—that makes them particularly vulnerable to methionine depletion.

To find out whether manipulating cancer cells' diet can make DMG tumors grow slower, researchers put those cells in a Petri dish and recorded their behavior while depleting one nutrient at a time. When scientists depleted the cells of methionine, the picture was clear—the cancer cells' growth was dramatically repressed.

Researchers also showed that removing a key enzyme involved in converting methionine into other components indispensable for many cellular functions stymies cancer cells' growth and increases survival of mice with aggressive DMG cancers. In a separate experiment, when sick mice were put on a methionine-restricted diet, their life expectancy rose by nearly 50%.

The group is now busy developing a proposal for a clinical trial to test drugs targeting methionine metabolism in people.

"Everyone in the field of brain cancer, scientists and neurosurgeons alike, are often asked if there is a diet change that a patient can take to aid their recovery. Small steps like these give patients and their families a sense of control and optimism," said Agnihotri. "The answer to that question is complicated. A diet change alone probably won't have a dramatic effect, but maybe it can complement other therapies and make them more effective."

[ConservativeMind]

It’s not a cure, and kids don’t have a lot of protein from other places, such as muscle, to pull from to trickle in methionine, but it’s an option to be explored with your doctor.

A “less than a year” prognosis is a pretty poor alternative.

[ConservativeMind]

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[ryderann]

The wormers Ivermectin, fenbendazole, and mebendazole inhibit the growth of various cancers and are used by oncologists in treatment. Perhaps there’s a wormer for this terrible DMG. The quicker Fauci goes to hell the happier I’ll be.

[devere]

Have they tried IP6? It will stop cancer cells from dividing by binding to iron, and it does seem to cross the blood-brain barrier.

[cicero2k]

Methionine is tricky to control. It comes from animal protein so no beef eggs or dairy. Plus more protein is needed after age 70. Forget going out to dinner with friends and the Impossible meats have other problems.

[ConservativeMind]

The purpose of this study was to find something new.

[devere]

The purpose of most medical studies is to find new ways to make money by treating disease.

IP6 is safe, inexpensive, and will put almost any cancer into remission. So why not use it? No profit to be made?