Amino acids and tumors: what is the connection?

New Links Discovered Between Amino Acids and Tumors

Let's get one thing straight: Essential amino acids are not an alternative to chemotherapy, but their role could become increasingly important for cancer patients.

Since the dawn of chemotherapy in the 1950s, it has been clear that nutrition plays a key role in the development of tumor cells.

Although, over the years, many experts in cellular metabolism argued that anaerobic glycolysis had a central role in the energy production of the tumor itself (the so-called Warburg effect), largely ignoring the mechanisms that regulate the protein and lipid synthesis necessary for the tumor cell to duplicate itself.

All this led to the belief that a diet low in amino acids, for cancer patients, could slow the development of tumor mass.

60% of cancer patients are unable to reach a pharmacologically relevant dose of chemotherapy without it becoming toxic to the patient's tissues and organs. Ignoring this data can be a mistake in itself.

Furthermore, in these patients, it has been observed that the toxicity of chemotherapy is proportional to the integrity of the muscle mass and a deficiency of the same is proportional to the probability of not reaching adequate doses of therapy.

What would be an ideal path?

The proposal can be summarized in two words: physical activity appropriate to the subject and precision nutrition. The latest meta-analysis published by Mol Oncol. 2021 shows that properly scheduled physical activity reduces the risk of neoplasia (tumor mass) development, with strong and consistent evidence on the ability to reduce risk in six different tumor sites (bladder, breast, colon, endometrium, esophagus, stomach). It is also associated with better tolerance to chemotherapy drugs.

This is because exercise is one of the main factors that can stimulate the increase in muscle mass.

Furthermore, precision nutrition is now able to offer increasingly effective and safe micronutrients in the fight against cancer, and knowledge of the mechanisms regarding some amino acids is opening up new frontiers that are easily explored.

Any news on the link between amino acids and tumors?

Essential amino acids play a leading role in generating the drive for protein synthesis and must be present in a precise ratio to complete protein synthesis.

Tumor cells have a particular efficiency and therefore an advantage over "normal" cells, this is because the tumor tends to reduce the production of energy by the mitochondria, which produce oxidizing substances, and in fact favors cytoplasmic glycolysis, but in doing so, it greatly reduces the availability of intermediates in the Krebs cycle to be used in the production of non-essential amino acids (NEAA).

So tumor cells depend on and consume non-essential amino acids to reproduce and multiply . This creates a great advantage because the tumor finds fertile ground in organisms in which the presence of non-essential amino acids is predominant.

But what happens if you reverse the ratio between essential amino acids (EAA) and non-essential amino acids (NEAA) in favor of the former?

The research carried out has led to the discovery that in a favorable environment for the so-called "normal" cells (therefore with a greater presence of essential amino acids), they have maximum efficiency and adaptability, however tumor cells (especially those with a high duplication rate) encounter great difficulty in their multiplication given the lack of NEAA, this fact highlights the poor adaptability of tumor cells which leads them to self-destruct due to the lack of nutrients useful for their growth (non-essential amino acids as mentioned above).

Bottom line: amino acids and tumors, what is the link?

Thanks to the data that have emerged in recent years, from the research of Prof. Dioguardi and that of all the great researchers who deal with metabolomic nutrition, the understanding of the mechanisms between amino acids and tumors has improved greatly.

The advice we can offer is simple, but not trivial, tumor cells find fertile ground when our diet is unbalanced towards high quantities of non-essential amino acids.

Therefore, regardless of your health condition, introduce a higher amount of essential amino acids into your diet .

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Sources:

^{Studies and research by Prof. FS Dioguardi Gastroenterologist, Associate Professor in Internal Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, University of Milan}