4 ms·

This is outside my field of knowledge, so I could only skim the paper. It does seem that they have demonstrated an effect, based on what they say and on the gr

This is outside my field of knowledge, so I could only skim the paper. It does seem that they have demonstrated an effect, based on what they say and on the graphs they show. How it translates to humans is of course an open question, but this is par for the course: cells first, animals second, humans maybe third. It does jive a bit with my lived experience, though. If I eat at odd times then I don't sleep well. And I've found that sleeping well correlate with faster recovery from injuries and illness. The other factor is weight loss. The mice lost weight in an amount that the authors considered small but statistically significant. I'd be interested in another study that isolated that effect. (Frankly, though, the paper was -- suitably -- a mass of acronyms and technical language that I did not try to make my eyes go over all the words. They might have discussed this.)

yterdy 3y ago
I think it would be more responsible to speculate a little about how, exactly, weight loss would be helpful in this case. I imagine that it is, but we need to move away from it being treated as a "regardless of what form it takes" panacea.
- InSteady 3y ago
  Not quite the same thing, but patients who lose weight as a symptom of lung cancer are more prone to toxicity from treatment and have shorter survival times overall. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2409471/\ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2409471/\ And to be clear, the authors of the OP study absolutely do propose a mechanism by which the time window and reprogramming of circadian rhythms in tumor cells lead to tumor suppression. It's right there in the 'results' summary and elaborated in much greater detail in 'discussion' section: >After TRF intervention, only timeless (TIM) gene among five lung cancer-associated clock genes was found to consistently align rhythm of tumor cells to that of tumor tissues. Further, we demonstrated that the anti-tumor effect upon TRF was partially mediated by the rhythmic downregulation of the TIM and the subsequent activation of autophagy. Combining TRF with TIM inhibition further enhanced the anti-tumor effect, comparable to treatment efficacy of chemotherapy in xenograft model.

yterdy 3y ago

I think it would be more responsible to speculate a little about how, exactly, weight loss would be helpful in this case. I imagine that it is, but we need to move away from it being treated as a "regardless of what form it takes" panacea.

InSteady 3y ago
Not quite the same thing, but patients who lose weight as a symptom of lung cancer are more prone to toxicity from treatment and have shorter survival times overall. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2409471/\ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2409471/\ And to be clear, the authors of the OP study absolutely do propose a mechanism by which the time window and reprogramming of circadian rhythms in tumor cells lead to tumor suppression. It's right there in the 'results' summary and elaborated in much greater detail in 'discussion' section: >After TRF intervention, only timeless (TIM) gene among five lung cancer-associated clock genes was found to consistently align rhythm of tumor cells to that of tumor tissues. Further, we demonstrated that the anti-tumor effect upon TRF was partially mediated by the rhythmic downregulation of the TIM and the subsequent activation of autophagy. Combining TRF with TIM inhibition further enhanced the anti-tumor effect, comparable to treatment efficacy of chemotherapy in xenograft model.