A blend of a diabetes pill and an antihypertensive drug in your menu can effectively battle cancer cells. The team of academics led by Prof. Michael Hall at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel has also conveyed that specific cancer cells answer to this mixture of drugs. The results of the study have now been in print in Science Advances.
Metformin is the most extensively prescribed drug for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Also, its blood sugar lowering outcome, it also displays anti-cancer assets. The usual beneficial dose, however, is too low to efficiently fight cancer. The research team led by Prof. Michael Hall, at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel, has now made an unanticipated discovery: The antihypertensive drug syrosingopine potentiates the anti-cancer effectiveness of metformin. Seemingly, this drug blend drives cancer cells to set "suicide."
Drug Concoction Kills Tumor Cells
"For example, in samples from leukemia patients, we established to almost all tumor cells were killed by this cocktail and at doses that are not toxic to normal cells," says the first author, Don Benjamin. "And the effect was narrowed to cancer cells, as the blood cells from healthy donors were insensitive to the treatment." As the study shows, the blend of these two drugs is effective in a wide-range of cancer tumors.
Drugs Block "Juice" Supply To Starve Cancer Cells
In mice with deadly liver cancer, enlargement of the liver was condensed after the therapy. Also, the number of tumor lumps was less -- in some test subjects, the tumors disappeared totally. A glance at the molecular procedures in the tumor cells explains the drug mixture's efficacy: Metformin lowers not only the blood sugar level but also blocks the respirational chain in the energy workshops of the cell, the mitochondria. The antihypertensive drug syrosingopine, constraints, among other things, the lowering of sugars.
Thus, the drugs intersect the vital processes which deliver energy for the cell. Due to their increased metabolic movement and rapid growth, cancer cells have mostly high energy consumption, which makes them tremendously vulnerable when the energy supply is fewer.
Groundbreaking Step Towards Clinical Application
"We have been able to demonstrate how the two known drugs lead to more profound effects on cancer cell propagation than each drug alone," explains Benjamin. "The data from this study support the development of combination approaches for the treatment of cancer patients." This study may have implications for a future clinical application of combination scenarios targeting the energy needs of tumor cells.
