10 ms·
Air pollution cancer breakthrough will rewrite the rules
- FollowingTheDao 4y ago"And it may now be possible to develop drugs that stop cancers forming." Maybe try to stop the pollution?
- layer8 4y agoWay less profitable.
- zeristor 4y agoThis sounds amazing, and anything that go towards curing cancer is fantastic. I do hope this means that we don’t give up trying to reduce pollution though, that it won’t sap the resolve for clean air.
- AstralStorm 4y agoIt's about prevention, and the way from observation that cancers need a trigger to actual workable preventatives is long and fraught with failure.
- aaron695 4y ago
- thebeastie 4y agoProponents of fasting will love this, since the idea is that not eating for a while will cause the body to scavenge for this old / damaged cell material.
- highwaylights 4y agoAnd is that nonsense or is there evidence that backs it up?
- flir 4y agoFYI: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/fasting-increases-health-lifespan-male-mice https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/fasting... But as to the mechanism... not a scooby.
- Aachen 4y ago> Long periods of fasting between meals helped male mice live longer and healthier lives, regardless of the content of their diets. More studies are needed to confirm these results and understand how different fasting periods may impact health.
- sendfoods 4y agoI am sure fasting proponents promise way too many things, but the underlying cell cleanup mechanism [0] is very real and received the Nobel Prize in 2016 [1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autophagy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autophagy [1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27912049/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27912049/
- google234123 4y agoThe wiki page does not mention fasting.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- sendfoods 4y ago> fasting and CR [calorie restriction] are the most potent non-genetic autophagy stimulators, and lack the undesirable side effects associated with alternative interventions. > We conclude that both fasting and CR have a role in the upregulation of autophagy, the evidence overwhelmingly suggesting that autophagy is induced in a wide variety of tissues and organs in response to food deprivation From: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30172870/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30172870/
- DFHippie 4y agoBut here we want cells to eat themselves, not damaged organelles. I believe nuclear DNA isn't among the things cleaned up by autophagy.
- Maursault 4y ago> I believe nuclear DNA isn't among the things cleaned up by autophagy. The ProNukes have gone too far this time.
- FollowingTheDao 4y agoSpermidine does this as well. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15548627.2018.1530929 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15548627.2018.1... If you want to know how to increase it ask me how.
- yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago> Dietary spermidine is rapidly resorbed from the intestine and distributed in the body without degradation [37].
- FollowingTheDao 4y agoNot only by diet, we make spermidine endogenously. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wesley-Brooks-2/publication/236190334/figure/fig1/AS:216426834075653@1428611586549/The-polyamine-pathway-A-Polyamines-at-physiological-pH-Putrescine-2-8A.png https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wesley-Brooks-2/publica... B6 will increase ODC and AMD1 activity. B2 for SMOX and PAO. This will keep this pathyway functioning well.
- sendfoods 4y ago> If you want to know how to increase it ask me how. how?
- FollowingTheDao 4y agoThanks for asking! The polyamines, including Spermidine, are created off of the urea cycle and increasing the urea cycle is dependent on lowering, or inhibiting Nitric Oxide Synthase. There are plenty of natural NOS inhibitors, like Black Tea and Ginger. This will mean instant of Arginine going to make Nitric Oxide it is instead shunted to the enzyme Arginase in the urea cycle. Arginase needs Manganese too increase function, so maybe mussels will help here since they are very high in manganese. But we cannot stop here since this might just mean that you spin the urea cycle around and around. What we need to do is stimulate Orniothine Decarboxylase (ODC) to pull the ornithine out of the urea cycle to the polymaine pathway. ODC need B6 as a cofactor to increase activity so taking B6 or eating foods high in B6 will do well here. Not that we have the ornithine going where it need we need to make sure we can turn it into spermidine by making sure we have enough of the coenzymes for those enzymes. The coenzyme here is SAMe. And that's it. But be careful, because if you have messed up genetics like me you already make enough spermidine and it will cause great mental turmoil, even suicidal thoughts. Here is the pathway: https://www.science.org/cms/10.1126/science.aan2788/asset/5e470cc8-066d-49f6-9904-52f6b8605b22/assets/graphic/359_aan2788_f1.jpeg https://www.science.org/cms/10.1126/science.aan2788/asset/5e... On mental illness and spermidine: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5293545/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5293545/
- lonelyasacloud 4y ago"The idea of taking a cancer-blocking pill if you live in a heavily polluted area is not completely fanciful. " - Prof Charles Swanton Really interesting and, obviously major news in the battle against cancer. In terms of research funding; wonder if it will lead to industries linked with cancer, e.g. tobacco, alcohol, motor vehicles ... , quietly starting to fund prophylactic R&D as well?
- wcerfgba 4y agoHas a dystopian ring to it, "we don't need to clear up the nuclear waste, just take your thyroid pills and everything will be fine"
- mike_hock 4y agoLive in the pod, eat the 3-headed radioactive bugs ...
- bheadmaster 4y agoVery similar to "we don't need to make quality of life higher, just take your depression pills and everything will be fine".
- ahaucnx 4y agoAir pollution causes not only cancer but a variety of health issues including things like asthma or even behavioral impacts. Small particulate matter can get into the blood circulation and then stay in your body with all kinds of long term effects. So even if this reduces the cancer risk, it probably still causes other issues and reducing air pollution is most likely still the ultimate solution.
- candiddevmike 4y ago"We don't/can't clean up the PFAS/lead, here's some bottled water"
- tempodox 4y agoWin-win: No need to invest into changing life-threatening tech and make money selling the protection. Profits can only rise!
- mrtri 4y ago
- ahaucnx 4y agoIt would be interesting to know if the probability of developing cancer has a linear relationship with the amount of air pollution. For example would double the amount of PM2.5 pollution double the cancer risk?
- dotcoma 4y agoProbably quadruple (but I’m just guessing)
- BiteCode_dev 4y agoSo... zombie cells cause by pollution?
- nosianu 4y agoSo... what are possible side effects of suppressing that signal? As I understand the article, one would have to do so long-term. I mean, is that signal really so useless? I would think it occurs for a reason? My understanding is that sure, inflammation is a heavy weapon of the immune system that causes quite a bit collateral damage because it's more like a weapon of mass destruction instead of carefully targeted strikes. I would think it exists for a reason though, although frequently repeated use, again as I understand it, is not how it's supposed to work. Still, suppressing it entirely and long-term, what would that do?
- icegreentea2 4y agoThere are a variety of inflammation pathways and signalling proteins. It's possible that IL-8beta has a uniquely high cancer inducing potential, and that when blocked, other signalling proteins can still generate appropriate inflammation for proper function. But ya, long-term effects are going to have to be studied. Luckily, it looks like IL-8b inhibitors are used to treat other chronic diseases, so we can pull some data out of there (though a lot of them are auto-immune, so the validity of extrapolating to a more healthy population is maybe questionable). It's also possible that we can develop a more precise approach that moderates the signalling response of IL-8beta without fully suppressing it.
- gniv 4y ago> 99% of people in the world live in places where air pollution exceeds the WHO guidelines Wow. I knew cities are polluted but this is extreme. In 50 years we might look at pollution as we look at smoking now, a terrible self-inflicted wound on civilization that took way too long to acknowledge and fix.
- DoingIsLearning 4y agoDon't forget the fraud of the whole Dieselgate scandal. We were all getting excess NO2 pumped out of diesel engines. Effectively shortening all our lifespans.
- bayouborne 4y agoIn the US there are glider kits that let old Diesel engines belch forever on highways legally. https://www.csmtruck.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-glider-kit-trucks https://www.csmtruck.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-glider-kit-tru... https://www.fitzgeraldgliderkits.com/what-is-a-glider-kit/ https://www.fitzgeraldgliderkits.com/what-is-a-glider-kit/
- riedel 4y agoThis a very generic statement that IMHO does not point us in the right direction: NO2 concentration can be linked to a statistically lower lifespan. But it will affect vulnerable people over proportionally (so it does not decrease all of our lifespans) and it is also an effective statical proxy for other traffic pollution. (Also with rigged diesels concentration has been going down and life expectancy is increasing also for other reasons) Unlike toxic stuff in food, regulations do not try to limit the exposure of an individual but to take action based and prioritize measures based on the statistical severity to the whole population. I do not really think that Dieselgate (while being deeply unethical many ppl kind of knew that the regulation had holes like a cheese) really made that much of a difference if you look at the situation globally. Access to clean air and water is a privilege and all rich nations and their citizens have a responsibility. It is far to easy to always just point at some rigged exhaust cleaning systems in cars. The problem is far more complex (also electric cars will produce emissions)
- 4y ago
- ITI03 4y agoSeems like a convenient discovery, given the circumstances at the moment.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- tartoran 4y agoWonderful, don’t worry about polition, just take this pill… I know it’s cynical take but we should take pollution way more seriously in the place
- phlofy 4y agoDon't know about you but I'd rather not get cancer while we sort out our polution problems, thank you very much.
- atonse 4y agoIf I were at a cigarette company, I’d be telling my bosses to fund this research more so then they’d be able to market “cigarettes that don’t cause cancer” right?
- stereoradonc 4y agoThis is a known fact: PM 2.5 causes irreversible inflammation of the specific cells, leading to an immune cascading effect that may go unregulated. The timing of the news is with the Oncology conference, so it attracts more attention. It is rehashed news. It requires an environmental clean up, but must be balanced by the costs. It is usually difficult to reverse sunk costs for prior human activity. Often, it requires careful deliberation around vehicular pollution.