Liver bile acid in lieu of chemotherapy drug cocktail for cancer treatment?
Since the first recorded case of cancer scrawled on ancient papyrus in Egypt several thousand years ago to now, innumerable studies, countless infected lab rats and billions of dollars have been used in the race to find a cure for this deadly disease.
Sadly, while many cancer research milestones have been passed, the elusive 'miracle drug' is still beyond our reach.
According to new research, however, a vital jigsaw piece of that ever distant cure could very well have always lurked as near and within reach as our very own body. Could it be that the much heralded breakthrough has slept undiscovered within the coccoon of our very own flesh and blood?
The treatments used today for cancer are far from elegant, as their curative benefits just barely outweigh their list of damaging side effects and radioactive brutality.
Chemotherapy, the most widely known cancer therapy, works by killing cells that divide rapidly. While cancer cells may be the intended prey for which chemo relentlessly hunts, bone marrow, hair follicles and the digestive system are just as riddled with the scattershot wounds of drugs and rays. A veritable warfare ensues, resulting in biological collateral damage. Patients using chemotherapy may require extended hospital stays or even be forced to travel to state-of-the-art hospitals for the utmost attention and care. For those without medical insurance, barring a miraculous lotto win or inheritance from a mysterious benefactor, being able to afford the thousands upon thousands of dollars in potential costs are tragically beyond reach.
Radiation uses different types of rays to target cancerous cells and mutate DNA so that cells can no longer divide into tumors. The grueling side effects include severe skin rashes, a heavily restricted diet, hair loss and nausea. Ravaged by the combined trauma of cancer and radiation, patients may then suffer from the less tangible psychological tolls of depression and despair.
With all the modern advances in medical devices and nanotechnology applications in the field of health, recent developments in better radiation cancer targeting techniques have come from a remarkably natural and mundane source: soybeans. Cancer researchers have been paying tremendous attention recently to the plant most often touted by vegetarians and vegans as an incredibly healthy alternative to substances like milk. Rather than representing an overpriced organic food option in the local Whole Foods or Sprouts market, the isoflavones in this unassuming plant have been used to improve radiation cell targeting treatment
However, soy is not found naturally in our body, so what has Concordia unearthed that can compete with the radiation targetting benefits of isoflavones? In what may seem a completely unrelated previous study, a research team at Concordia University found that Lithocholic acid (LCA), a liver-produced bile acid, extends longevity in "yeast cellular models of aging" by affecting certain pathways that promote aging, altering cellular autophagy and changing several mitochondrial processes; all three of these processes have been found to play a role in either promoting aging or acting as a defense against aging.
How does anti-aging relate to cancer cell targeting? Well, considering that cancer creates tumors because of their immortal cellular defiance of aging, understanding the principles of life and death are crucial to reverse engineering an accelerated death for cancer cells. Like something out of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, where an enchanted carousel can either make a person younger or older depending on which direction it spins, the search for the mechanics behind a similar biological 'aging carousel' have driven much of cancer research. Like the iconic evil carnival master, Mr. Dark, of Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show in Ray Bradbury's famous novel, cancer is just as insidious and crafty in its brutal take-no-prisoners survival methods.
A less fictional and more literal story about cancer cell agelessness was movingly documented by Rebecca Skloot in her book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks was an African-American woman whose cervical cancer in the 1950s served as a source of cancerous tumor cells that were cultured by George Otto Gey; his work led to the first ever creation of an immortal cell line in the medical world. Now known as the HeLa cell line, this landmark study paved the road for the decades of aging-related cancer research that followed.
Now, new research from Concordia University finds that LCA can target specifically cancerous cells while leaving normal cells virtually alone. Senior author Vladimir Titorenko, professor in the department of Biology and Concordia University Research Chair in Genomics, Cell Biology, and Aging positively stated, "LCA doesn't just kill individual cancer cells. It could also prevent the entire tumor from growing."
As mentioned earlier in the test with yeast longevity, LCA was effective in altering mitochondrial processes; likewise, the speculated reason as to why LCA is so effective in discriminating between the cancerous cells and non-cancerous cells has to do with mitochondria and LCA receptors.
Mitochondria are organelles in the cells that are responsible for carrying out the Krebs cycle and providing energy for the cell in the form of adenosine triphosphate. It is speculated that cancerous cells are hyper-sensitive to LCA, so when they are over-stimulated, the mitochondria program themselves to self-destruct and take the cancerous cell down with them.
LCA liver bile not only presents a very effective cancer killer, it is also extremely patient-friendly. In some studies, LCA was given safely to mice by merely adding it to their food.
The team’s next step in researching LCA will gauge its efficacy in treating different types of cancer on mice models. Given enough time and sufficient trials, LCA would offer a significantly less damaging alternative to the traditional drug cocktails and radiation of chemotherapy.