ATP goes down as UCP2 goes up in cells

Mar 23, 2016

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ATP goes down as UCP2 goes up in cellsUCP2, besides reducing ROS, also causes inefficient ATP production in cells from respiration. That could provide an opportunity to treat cancers, which overexpress UCP2 using ketone bodies, since KB's can be metabolized only  by respiration. Control cells (fibroblasts) are those inside the oval-- they produce 100% of expected ATP and have the lowest expression of UCP2. ALL the cancers overexpress UCP2 and produce proportionally less ATP. (SW48, a colon cancer cell line, is a slight outlier, but the pattern is still quite clear).                
 
 

Rose, Julie, and 3 others like this.

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Chris

Gene, the findings seem to be consistent with data that's out there. especially in terms of the correlation between UCP2 and Warburg. I'm sure you are familiar with this study: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0024792

Mar 23, 20161

About This Project

Can low carbohydrate ketogenic diets inhibit cancers?

Nutrition & Metabolism Society/Albert Einstein College of Medicine /SUNY Downstate Medical Center

Insulin is a hormone which supports growth of normal cells, but also of cancers. A very low carbohydrate (VLC) diet safely and readily lowers blood insulin levels. The effects of a VLC diet has potential to inhibit cancer growth without harming normal tissues.

We further hypothesize that a VLC diet can combine with the effects of drug treatment in cancers, thus reducing drug doses and therefore toxicities. We aim to test this hypothesis in cell cultures.