Simple, cheap and effective drug against cancer discovered

[motorollin]

bloodline wrote:
Odd that the mitochondria have control over cell termination?

Not really. Mitochondrial oxidization leads to cell death.

bloodline wrote:
One would have though activating dormant mitochondria would have provided an extra boost in cell growth/devision due to extra energy provided.

Maybe it does in the short term. But eventually the cell will be oxidised to the point of breakdown. Ironic really that without oxygen we would die, but the oxidization of cells causes aging and, eventually, death.

bloodline wrote:
Begs the question though... how do the cancer cells work without mitochondria? I was under the impression all Oxygen respiration was due to these little symbiots?

Anaerobic respiration maybe?

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moto

[motorollin]

bloodline wrote:
Begs the question though... how do the cancer cells work without mitochondria? I was under the impression all Oxygen respiration was due to these little symbiots?

motorollin wrote:
Anaerobic respiration maybe?

From http://www.outsmartyourcancer.com/ModernSageArticle2.pdf:

In the 1930s and 1940s, two-time Nobel prize-winning scientist, Otto Warburg, demonstrated that all cancer cells share the important trait of being primarily anaerobic.  Whereas all healthy cells in our bodies require an oxygen-rich environment, Warburg was able to show that cancer cells actually thrive in an oxygen-depleted environment.  He further proved that, rather than using oxygen, cancer cells use glucose fermentation for their energy needs.

Glucose fermentation -> Lactic Acid + Energy.

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moto

[motorollin]

Just found another article which says that cancer cells "have either wholly or partially switched to anaerobic respiration". It does not, however, address the efficiency of anaerobic compared to aerobic respiration.

--
moto

[motorollin]

bloodline wrote:
I suppose Anaerobic does have the advantage of not requiring an oxygen supply... this would allow the cancer to grow quickly without an effective blood supply...

... and without the harmful effects of oxidisation.

[edit]
Could this be why cancer sufferers are sometimes underweight and very very tired? Because the cancer cells are leeching all of the glucose for anaerobic respiration?

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moto