Taurine is an amino acid occurring naturally in the body, and found in energy drinks as well as foods such as fish and meat – and although it has certain advantages for the body, a new study suggests that it is also an important source of fuel for driving cancers such as leukemia.
Led by a team from the University of Rochester Medical Center (Ur Medicine), the study analyzed the behavior of leukemia cells, noting that they could borrow taurine from the surrounding bone marrow and use it to develop more quickly. It gives these cells a growth shock, similar to the way we could obtain a vigilance shock from an energy drink.
When the researchers blocked access to taurine in mouse models and leukemia cells transplanted by humans or mice, cancer growth has been removed. This suggests that targeting taurine could help treatments for certain types of cancer, such as leukemia.
“Local taurine levels in the bone marrow can improve leukemia growth, suggesting caution in using a high dose taurine supplementation,” said oncologist Jane Liesveld, of Ur Medicine.
It is this supplementation, through sources such as energy drinks, that researchers are worried. It is still early in terms of joining these points, but giving the body an additional taurine may not be the best idea to stop cancers.
However, a more in -depth survey on how it works will be necessary. It is not yet clear how it could work in humans, nor how additional taurine outside the bone marrow could have an impact.
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With different cancers, however, there is a different context. Taurine is also known to increase the immune system in certain ways, and previous studies have shown that this can help fight gastric cancers in the stomach.
Find out more about the metabolism of cancers and how they survive and thrive, is an increasingly important part of cancer research. We know that genetic mutations can lead to the growth of cancer out of control, but it is not the only tip of the disease.
“Metabolic reprogramming is a characteristic of cancer, and we are at the very beginning of understanding the metabolic effects on leukemia cells,” explains Liesveld.
“The emphasis has been placed on genetic changes, but the emphasis is placed on understanding how leukemic cells are capable of diverting various metabolic pathways for their own survival.”
While energy drinks undoubtedly work as announced – giving you a brief explosion of energy – there are growing concerns about the health risks of these drinks, which have been linked to heart disease and altered cognition in previous studies.
It is possible that cancer risks can be added to this list of potential drawbacks, although the high content of sugar and caffeine is probably a more urgent health problem than taurine.
What is more important in these discoveries is that cancer cells could be stopped by cutting their energy diet.
Myeloid cancers such as leukemia interfere with the normal functioning of blood cells, and they can be in motion fast and difficult to treat. Everything we can do to slow down is likely to improve recovery rates.
“We are very enthusiastic about these studies because they demonstrate that targeting absorption by myeloid leukemia cells can be a new possible avenue for the treatment of these aggressive diseases,” explains Jeevisha Bajaj, biologist of stem cells and cancer.
“Our current data suggest that it would be useful to develop stable and effective means of preventing taurine from entering leukemia cells.”
Research was published in Nature.
