Tumor cells have decreased ability to metabolize H2O2: Implications for pharmacological ascorbate in cancer therapy
Low levels of catalase enzyme make cancer cells vulnerable to high-dose vitamin C. Vitamin C has a patchy history as a cancer therapy, but researchers at the University of Iowa believe that is because it has often been used in a way that guarantees failure. Most vitamin C therapies involve taking the substance orally. However, the UI scientists have shown that giving vitamin C ntravenously – bypassing normal gut metabolism and excretion – creates blood levels that are 100 – 500 times higher than levels seen with oral ingestion. It is this super-high concentration in the blood that is crucial to vitamin C’s ability to attack cancer cells.
Earlier work by UI redox biology expert Garry Buettner found that at these extremely high levels (millimolar range), vitamin C selectively kills cancer cells but not normal cells in the test tube and in mice. Physicians at UI Hospitals and Clinics are now testing the approach in clinical trials for pancreatic cancer and lung cancer that combine high-dose, IV vitamin C with standard chemotherapy or radiation. Earlier phase 1 trials indicated this treatment is safe and well-tolerated and hinted that the therapy improves patient outcomes. The current, larger trials aim to determine if the treatment improves survival.
In a new study, published recently in the December issue of the journal Redox Biology, Buettner and his colleagues have homed in on the biological details of how high-dose vitamin C (also known as ascorbate) kills cancer cells. The study shows that vitamin C breaks down easily, generating hydrogen peroxide, a reactive oxygen species that can damage tissue and DNA. The study also shows that tumor cells are much less capable of removing the damaging H2O2 than normal cells.
Normal cells have several ways to remove hydrogen peroxide, keeping it at very low levels so it does not cause damage. The new study shows that catalase is the central route for removing hydrogen peroxide generated by decomposing vitamin C. The researchers discovered that cells with lower amounts of catalase activity were more susceptible to damage and death when they were exposed to high amounts of vitamin C. This fundamental information might help determine which cancers and which therapies could be improved by inclusion of high-dose ascorbate.
“Our results suggest that cancers with low levels of catalase are likely to be the most responsive to high-dose vitamin C therapy, whereas cancers with relatively high levels of catalase may be the least responsive,” he explains. A future goal of the research is to develop methods to measure catalase levels in tumors. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213231716302634 http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2017/01/09/Study-sheds-light-on-how-high-dose-vitamin-C-kills-cancer-cells/1721483985439/
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