Warburg Effect Diet and Cancer

The Warburg Effect: Diet and Cancer (the latest evidence)

by | Feb 14, 2023 | News

In 1931 Otto Warburg won a Nobel Prize for his research into tumours, and cancer cells. He discovered that healthy cells and cancer cells ‘breathe and eat’ (metabolise) very differently. Ever since his ground-breaking discovery over 90 years ago, scientists have been researching these critical metabolic differences. Thousands of scientific papers have been published to understand why, and how, cancer cells rewire their metabolism.

In this article, we review the latest research, and life-saving implications, of the role different sugars play in this metabolic mystery. For the first time, there is very clear evidence that specific types of dietary sugar are implicated in either feeding or starving, the spread of cancer. Could galactose pave the way to a safer sweet tooth?

Cells

The Warburg Effect: Simplified

Each of your 32 trillion cells has to take in fuel, then turn it into energy. Carbohydrates (sugars) and fats are the most common energy sources, but other substances, like amino acids, can also be used to make this ‘bioelectricity’. Your body uses an energy currency (like £’s or $’s) called ATP, which it makes from ADP. You don’t need to know how it’s made, but you do need to know we make an incredible 70kg of this critical energy currency every day, and all of it is spent!

We only store enough ATP for about 7-seconds of survival before the ‘power’ goes out. Fortunately, our cells have evolved to use different fuel sources, and multiple pathways, to make bioelectrical energy from our food fuel. Phew! That’s a relief. We don’t ‘power-down’ due to a lack of ATP; even when we don’t get enough oxygen (like when we are running) our cells find ways to keep making energy.

Cells

Types of Metabolism

The two main pathways to make ATP are: with oxygen (aerobic) and without oxygen (anaerobic). When there isn’t enough oxygen, the anaerobic pathway creates lactic acid as a by-product – which we feel as a ‘stitch’ (or ‘Charley Horse’ for our American friends) if we run too fast. Otto Warburg also discovered an excess of lactic acid associated with cancer cells, indicating they were not using oxygen to make energy. But why? Making energy from fat and ‘burning’ it with oxygen (oxidising it) is the most efficient way to produce ATP, but there are many steps, so the process is relatively slow. Metabolising simple sugars, like glucose, with oxygen is quicker but less efficient. The least efficient (and metabolically messiest) way to make energy is using glucose without oxygen. Using this inefficient and messy anaerobic pathway to make ATP creates acidic and reactive by-products (like the soot that builds up in a chimney). So, it seems odd that cancer cells choose the least efficient way to make energy yet grow so quickly. But now we understand why.
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Metabolic Mischief

Cancer cells can use fat for fuel but choose to use simple sugars, specifically glucose, as there are hidden benefits. Researchers from the Cancer Institute of Xuzhou Medical University just published a remarkable study in the prestigious Nature Journal: Cell Death and Disease (impact score 8.79) exploring the mechanisms driving this metabolic manipulation, and the implications are incredible.

There are seven main theories that explain why cancer cells prefer glucose:

  1. Speed: Glucose provides the quickest way to make energy, so they can grow and spread as fast as possible.
  2. Competition: They take the most accessible fuel source, depriving healthy cells and cancer-fighting immune cells.
  3. Biosynthesis: After using glucose for fuel, the carbon is transformed into building blocks (e.g. nucleotides).
  4. Environment: Anaerobic glycolysis acidifies tissues, weakening the connections between healthy cells.
  5. Signalling: The ratio of metabolic by-products (NAD to NADH specifically) creates growth-enhancing signals.
  6. Epigenetics: Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) drive genetic ‘tagging’ (Acetylation), making DNA easier to copy.
  7. All of the Above: Most likely, all of these reasons come into play, depending on cancer and tissue type.
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Radical Results

Now that you understand the metabolic background, we can reveal the results of this latest research. Scientists used three types of cancer cells to find the exact genetic and enzymatic mechanisms behind this metabolic behaviour. Cancer cell lines, samples of cancerous tissue from patients, and animal models were all used to come to the same conclusions. Here are the highlights:

  • Malignant tumours (cancers that spread) are enhanced by anaerobic glycolysis (glucose without oxygen).
  • The rate of anaerobic glycolysis is directly proportional to the rate of cancer metastasis (cancer spreading).
  • The enzyme transketolase (TKT) is involved in anaerobic glycolysis and is associated with tumour growth.
  • The ‘family’ of TKT enzymes are also associated with lung, liver, breast, pancreatic, and cervical cancers.
  • Increased TKT (in tissue samples or DNA expression) was associated with worse cancer outcomes.
  • TKT expression was much higher inside tumours than in surrounding tissues and control samples.
  • TKT was strongly associated with cell growth, tumour size and cancer migration (metastasis).

Combined with the latest results, existing studies show a strong correlation between TKT and cancer growth. Patients with colon cancer are nearly twice as likely to survive (at 36-months) if they have a low TKT expression. TKT expression is so closely linked to cancer outcomes that it can be used as an indicator of survival likelihood.

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Reversing the Impact

Now that we know the how and why of cancer’s metabolic madness, we can reveal the practical implications. How can we use this research to prevent, diagnose, or even treat cancer? The results are astounding, and you can benefit from them immediately. This research went much deeper than just looking for positive correlations, they managed to turn off the effect. They managed to take away the metabolic advantage cancer cells create. Again, using three different methods (they were very thorough!), they decelerated tumour growth, reduced the tumour’s ability to spread, slowed the growth of blood vessels (angiogenesis) and helped healthy cells remain stuck together (preventing cancer from invading new areas). So, what were the methods they used for such an impressive shift?

  • Firstly, they used genetic engineering to create cells and rats without the TKK enzyme.
  • Secondly, they used selective poisons which directly inhibited the TKK enzyme.
  • Thirdly, they used a different type of sugar, they used galactose.

The first and second options aren’t practical ways in which we can bypass cancer’s metabolic optimisation for growth and invasion. But the third one is. It is a simple and effective way to get the upper hand by reducing the metabolic advantage cancer cells engineer. The sweet solution is simple; switch to a safer sugar.

“We used galactose which induced cells to survive on ATP provided by mitochondrial respiration.” Transketolase promotes colorectal cancer metastasis through regulating AKT phosphorylation Journal of Cell Death and Disease – Feb 2022

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Thank Goodness for Galactose!

World-renowned scientist Dr Johannes Coy has been developing safer sugars for decades.[v] His extensive research into the TKTL1 gene, and other metabolic markers for cancer, drives his mission to educate the public about diet, disease, and sugar specifically. Galactose is a simple sugar (like glucose) but it is metabolised very differently. It essentially ‘forces’ the cell powerhouses (mitochondria) to use fat and oxygen to make fuel. This metabolic difference is immense. The taste is similar, but the body responds completely differently. Galactose can even fuel the brain, like glucose, but it doesn’t let cancer cells hijack your metabolism. Not only is galactose better for you metabolically, but it’s also got fewer calories than sugar and even encourages the body to mobilise and burn fat; making it excellent for weight loss, diabetes and physical endurance. Dr Coy also went a step further, blending it with another metabolically safer sugar, tagatose, to create a sugar alternative that tastes delicious and is actually good for your body

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Sweetly Safe

After decades of research investigating the Warburg Effect, this is one the few papers that illuminate a practical way to beat the odds.  Cancer cells steal nutrients from healthy tissues, create acidic micro-environments, engineer new molecules and grow rapidly.  But they can only do this by hijacking glucose and forcing it down an unusual metabolic pathway. Safer sugars, like galactose, put a stop to this metabolic disruption. Extensive scientific research is revealing that smarter nutritional choices dramatically improve health outcomes, and prevent the epidemics of metabolic conditions. You don’t need to give up sweetness, but you do need to choose your sweet treats more carefully.

Citations

  • National Library of Medicine – The Warburg Effect: How Does it Benefit Cancer Cells? 
  • Science Direct – Adenosine Triphosphate 
  • Resurchify – Cell Death and Disease
  • Cell Death & Disease – Transketolase promotes colorectal cancer metastasis through regulating AKT phosphorylation
  • Dr Johannes F.Coy website

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