Scientists are trying to prevent transfer of cancer by blocking their energy source

According to research using recombinant rat proteins, scientists have found that cancer cells in cancer-bearing mice have a weakness - they need fat to make fuel. A team has found that blocking these cells to absorb fat can prevent the transfer of cancer in mice. They hope the same thing can happen on humans.

Now a new study adds strong evidence to this hypothesis. The researchers found that the energy sources of cells which are responsible for the spread of oral cancer in mice are fatty acids, including palmitic acid - a common food additive which is the main component of palm oil. They found that in many metastatic cells, a receptor protein called CD36 was expressed at a higher level, which helps the cells absorb fat. The high expression of CD36 is also associated with poor treatment outcomes in cancer patients, so the team decided to look at what would happen when the receptor is blocked. Incredibly, when the expression of CD36 in cancer cells is blocked, it can completely prevent the spread of human cancer in mice, but it did not prevent the formation of tumors.

"We hypothesized that the cells responsible for proliferation depend on a particular fatty acid and that they don't work without these fatty acids," Salvador Aznar Benitah, research leader, said, "But we don't yet know why CD36 would have prevented this effect."

The research team has a lot of work to do, and the current results show that this method can play a role when the cancer spreads. Inhibition of CD36 expression in mice reduced tumor diffusion by 15% and reduced tumor size by 80%. The study also found that mice with a high-fat diet made their lymph nodes and lung tumors bigger than the normal diet, which is a signal of tumor spread. What should be clarified is that this study only works for human cancer cells in mice, and it doesn't mean that the same method is also effective for humans.

At this stage, no one would suggest reducing fat intake in food to avoid the spread of cancer, especially for cancer patients who need high-energy diet to maintain health. The team is currently working on the development of human antibodies against CD36, hoping to carry out clinical trials in next 5 years.

"This is an exciting and very important first step," said Benitah, "And we have identified the cells responsible for metastatic cancer, which will be studied in more detail later. It opens up a new anti-metastatic therapy. We look forward to the end result of this study, because we have had many revolutionary new therapies for cancer treatment, but preventing its spread is unprecedented for the first time." Cusabio provides you with recombinant proteins of good quality such as recombinant TLR2 at good prices.