14 DAY TRIAL // New scientific studies, conducted by researchers at the University of California – Davis (UCD), showed that the amino-acid arginine is essential to pancreatic cancer cells, in that they need it in order to be able to divide and multiply. By artificially reducing arginine levels in culture cells, using modified arginine deiminase, an enzyme generated by a Mycoplasma bacterium, the team was able to reduce pancreatic cancer cell development by 50 percent.
The same result was obtained when the enzyme was used on unsuspecting mice, which had pancreatic cancer. A similar, 50 percent reduction in cancerous cell numbers was also noticed. The scientists practically interrupted the metabolic pathways that were feeding the cells, instead of trying to kill the cells themselves or to incite a stronger immune response in the animal models.
UC Davis chief of surgical oncology, Richard Bold, said "There have been few significant advances in 15 years of testing available chemotherapy to treat pancreatic cancer. The lack of progress is particularly frustrating because most patients are diagnosed after the disease has spread to other organs, eliminating surgery as an option. We have to turn back to basic science to come up with new treatments."
Bold, who is also the senior author of the new study, went on to say that "Instead of killing cells as with typical chemotherapy, we instead removed one of the key building blocks that cancer cells need to function," referring to the fact that the method devised by his team was the first one to tackle the cancer issue by an alternate means, in that it used metabolism to "cut" food supplies to cancer cells.
"We're looking at whether we can combine this treatment with certain kinds of chemotherapy. This additional research is needed to inform the clinical work and move it forward more quickly. The better we understand this process, the more we can use it in the fight against pancreatic cancer," he concluded.