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- They may have increased levels of an enzyme that can make glutamine from other abundant materials, such as glucose. They may also engulf other cells and take away their nutrients. In fact, cancer cells are modified to take more glutamine than they need, using the excess to detrimentally impact cell repair processes.
www.healthline.com/health/glutamine-and-cancer
Apr 24, 2019 · One of the best known, the gene MYC, promotes cancer in part by increasing cancer cells’ access to a steady supply of glutamine. Cells with an amplified MYC gene make more of the enzyme that converts glutamine into its downstream products.
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- Overview
- What’s the short answer?
- What does the research say?
- What does this mean for people who have cancer or are in remission?
- What does this mean for people with an increased risk of developing cancer?
- What does this mean for cancer prevention?
- Other frequently asked questions
- The bottom line
Healthy cells and cancer cells both need glutamine to survive.
The simple answer is yes, there appears to be a link between glutamine and cancer.
Many cancer cells seem to use glutamine to grow, survive, and multiply — so much so that they can become dependent on it.
The exact role of glutamine in cancer is still being understood.
Research has found that certain types of cancer cells may need it to grow and spread, as well as to regulate various activities inside the cell.
It may do this by providing the carbon and nitrogen required for cell growth. But some tumors are found in an environment with low glutamine levels.
This is interesting for researchers because cancer cells need to take glutamine from the environment outside of the cell. If that area is deprived of glutamine, where are the cancer cells getting it from?
Further studies suggest that cancer cells have adapted to these limitations in more than one way.
They may have increased levels of an enzyme that can make glutamine from other abundant materials, such as glucose. They may also engulf other cells and take away their nutrients.
“Cancer patients and those in remission may benefit from treatments that address the disease’s marked dependence upon this amino acid,” says physician and medical researcher J. Wes Ulm, MD, PhD.
“On the flip side, physician-supervised glutamine supplementation may also be of value in facilitating the healing of tissues affected by chemotherapy or radiation therapy.”
Glutamine supplementation may even improve the overall outcome of cases. But more research is needed.
If you have cancer or are in remission, avoid taking any supplements or changing your diet until you discuss it with your doctor.
You may read the opposite advice online: to avoid foods containing glutamine. But this is likely to have no effect.
Remember that glutamine is naturally produced in the body. And as the research shows, cancer cells are highly adapted to sourcing glutamine.
There’s still much research to be done on glutamine and cancer, so there are no specific recommendations if you have a higher risk of developing the disease.
This may change in the future. But right now, there’s no strong evidence that glutamine supplements or similar can reduce the risk.
“Individuals with variations in some genes related to glutamine metabolism may have a relatively greater predilection to develop cancer later,” says Ulm.
“Some oncogenes — mutated genes that enhance a cell’s growth (or bypass growth checkpoints), potentially giving rise to cancer — can specifically impact glutamine metabolism, most prominently a gene family called Myc,” he adds.
Similarly, there’s no evidence that consuming a certain level of glutamine in your diet can help prevent cancer.
General advice to maintain good health is to eat a well-balanced diet consisting mainly of fresh fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains, legumes, and nuts.
Does glutamine cause cancer?
Cancer is complex. But glutamine doesn’t cause it. Many types of cancer cells do appear to use glutamine to grow and spread. But cancer itself is caused by genetic changes that then affect how cells grow and divide. This can be due to DNA damage from harmful environmental factors, like UV rays or cigarette smoke, or inherited from your parents.
Is there anything you can do to block or reduce glutamine naturally?
Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in the bloodstream. Plus, your body produces it by itself in addition to getting it from your diet. So, there are no realistic ways of reducing glutamine levels through the likes of dietary changes.
Is glutamine in food?
Glutamine is found in a range of foods. Food with a high protein content tends to have the most amount of glutamine — think meat and other animal products like milk and cheese. But you’ll find glutamine in anything containing protein, including the likes of white rice, cabbage, and raw spinach.
Both healthy cells and cancerous cells need glutamine. So, cutting glutamine out of your diet isn’t recommended.
Plus, your body makes its own glutamine, so dietary changes are likely to have little effect.
But whether glutamine could help treat cancer or be a target for such treatment is a question that still needs to be answered.
Lauren Sharkey is a U.K.-based journalist and author specializing in women’s issues. When she isn’t trying to discover a way to banish migraines, she can be found uncovering the answers to your lurking health questions. She has also written a book profiling young female activists across the globe and is currently building a community of such resisters. Catch her on Twitter.
Oct 2, 2019 · Cancer cells also supplement their "diet" with glutamine, an amino acid found in proteins. In order to implement this metabolic shift, cancer cells put more glucose transporters (which import glucose) into their membranes and rely on glutamine to satisfy other nutritional requirements.
Nov 21, 2011 · The researchers found that in both normal and cancerous cells, lack of oxygen — a state known as hypoxia — provokes a switch to the alternate pathway. In a normal oxygen environment, 80 percent of a cell’s new lipids come from glucose, and 20 percent from glutamine.
These characteristics make glutamine metabolism an appealing target for new clinical strategies to detect, monitor, and treat cancer. Here we review the metabolic functions of glutamine as a super nutrient and the surprising roles of glutamine in supporting the biological hallmarks of malignancy.
OBJECTIVE: This overview on glutamine and cancer discusses the importance of glutamine for tumor growth, summarizes the alterations in interorgan glutamine metabolism that develop in the tumor-bearing host, and reviews the potential benefits of glutamine nutrition in the patient with cancer.
People also ask
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Mar 7, 2016 · Cancer cells are notorious for their ability to divide uncontrollably and generate hordes of new tumor cells. Most of the fuel consumed by these rapidly proliferating cells is glucose, a type of sugar.
