Medical Express tells us that while a certain metabolic pathway shows that it can slow down the aging process, it may drive brain cancer. The pathway is known as nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) pathway.
It has the potential to get overactive in a form of brain cancer known as glioblastoma. This is according to the study’s findings led by researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Pathway Linked To Slower Aging Also Fuels Cancer
Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive brain cancer in adults. Over 70 percent of patients with glioblastoma die within two years of diagnosis.
The new research showed that glioblastoma patients with high expression of an NAD+ pathway gene known as NAMPT died sooner. Read more…
News-Medical says that the results showed that the glioblastoma patients with high NAMPT died sooner. Tumors with increased expression of the same gene grew faster when they were introduced in mice and then shrank when NAMPT was inhibited.
The research was released last December 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Inhibiting the NAD+ pathway might give a better outcome for the patients but it may affect aging.
Metabolic Pathway That Shows Potential To Slow Aging May Drive Cancer
NAMPT produces a molecule known as nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) that has been shown to reduce signs of aging in mice. While its safety in people has yet to be determined – a clinical trial is ongoing in Japan – NMN and other molecules along the NAD+ pathway are being marketed as anti-aging supplements. Read more…
Science Daily shares what Albert H. Kim, MD, PhD, says about the study. He is an assistant professor of neurological surgery and the senior author on the study.
Kim says that if you’re considering anti-aging NAD+ precursors as a form of therapy, you might want to think about it first. There’s very little known about the risks and the author says that they don’t understand all the risks yet.
Pathway Linked To Slower Aging Also Fuels Cancer
Using human glioblastoma cells, Kim, postdoctoral researcher AmitGujar, PhD, and colleagues showed that NAMPT helped cancerous stem cells survive and proliferate, fueling the growth of existing tumors, while inhibiting NAMPT reduced the ability of the cancer stem cells to renew themselves. Read more…
Hoping for success, the researchers still need to dig deeper into the pathway mechanisms in order to establish a strategy specific for cancer. With this in mind, if they’ll be able to discover the best technique, it can open possibilities for treatment.
Image Credit: AMIT GUJAR AND ALBERT H. KIM
The post New Research: Metabolic Pathway Linked To Cancer appeared first on NUTRITION CLUB CANADA.
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