<story><title>Why cancer cells waste so much energy</title><url>https://news.mit.edu/2021/cancer-cells-waste-energy-0115</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>blakesterz</author><text>&amp;quot;The findings suggest that drugs that force cancer cells to switch back to aerobic respiration instead of fermentation could offer a possible way to treat tumors. Drugs that inhibit NAD+ production could also have a beneficial effect, the researchers say.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;And hopefully that&amp;#x27;s a path to follow that will help treat&amp;#x2F;cure some types of cance? This all just barely  makes sense to me, but my first question was &amp;quot;Does this help beat cancer in a new way?&amp;quot; and I guess the answer is... maybe?</text></item><item><author>deskamess</author><text>So the cancer cells went with the non-blocking, albeit slower algorithm. With aerobic, pipelines could get filled with ATP and end up blocking the essential NAD+. So the optimization was a loosely decoupled slower fermentation process over the faster aerobic process. Back pressure avoided and all that.&lt;p&gt;So tempting to go with analogies we are familiar with.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>majkinetor</author><text>Or maybe not because cancer cells do not exist in vacuum but are part of the body.&lt;p&gt;You will force your own cells to do so: red blood cells, certain immune cells etc.&lt;p&gt;We already do something along those lines - reducing sugar input via diet and sugar neogensis via metformin.&lt;p&gt;Be all that as it may, the finding is astounding.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why cancer cells waste so much energy</title><url>https://news.mit.edu/2021/cancer-cells-waste-energy-0115</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>blakesterz</author><text>&amp;quot;The findings suggest that drugs that force cancer cells to switch back to aerobic respiration instead of fermentation could offer a possible way to treat tumors. Drugs that inhibit NAD+ production could also have a beneficial effect, the researchers say.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;And hopefully that&amp;#x27;s a path to follow that will help treat&amp;#x2F;cure some types of cance? This all just barely  makes sense to me, but my first question was &amp;quot;Does this help beat cancer in a new way?&amp;quot; and I guess the answer is... maybe?</text></item><item><author>deskamess</author><text>So the cancer cells went with the non-blocking, albeit slower algorithm. With aerobic, pipelines could get filled with ATP and end up blocking the essential NAD+. So the optimization was a loosely decoupled slower fermentation process over the faster aerobic process. Back pressure avoided and all that.&lt;p&gt;So tempting to go with analogies we are familiar with.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ben_w</author><text>Article also says that other cells using this process include immune cells, so I wouldn’t be on this being a silver bullet.</text></comment>