Drugs used in cancer treatment might cause Alzheimer’s nerve cells to stay in their adult state for longer, reports a team led by Jerome Mertens Neural Aging Laboratory the University of Innsbruck in the journal “Cell Metabolism”.
Altered metabolism
“Our previous studies have already shown that Alzheimer’s neurons are very similar to cancer cells, with the major difference being that cancer cells grow out of control and Alzheimer’s neurons die out of control,” explained Larissa Traxler, Post-Doc at the Institute of Molecular Biology, in a broadcast. In the course of the work, the team focused specifically on the metabolism of Alzheimer’s nerve cells and “compared this with the very specific and well-researched metabolism of cancer cells,” Traxler continued.
These studies would have confirmed said similarity. Those responsible for the study spoke of the so-called “Warburg effect” – a change in the metabolism of cancer cells from the adult to the embryonic stage. This also occurs in Alzheimer’s nerve cells. “Alzheimer’s neurons undergo a very similar switch to embryonic metabolism as cancer cells. However, since cell death is initiated in nerve cells as soon as they begin to divide, they die off unlike cancer cells, which multiply uncontrollably,” says the microbiologist.
Already have active ingredients
In cancer therapy, there are already active ingredients that specifically target the “Warburg effect”. For this, I will focus in particular on the protein PKM2 focused. PKM2 is increasingly produced in cancer cells as well as in Alzheimer’s neurons and is considered to be one of the main regulators in the switch to embryonic metabolism. According to Traxler, active ingredients that inhibit the Warburg effect in cancer cells would also cause the nerve cells in Alzheimer’s nerve cells to retain their adult state longer. Researchers are now focusing on optimizing these active ingredients for aging nerve cells and adapting them so that they can reach the brain optimally and act there once morest Alzheimer’s.
In their research, the Innsbruck microbiologists used so-called induced neurons (iNs) – nerve cells that are cultivated from the skin cells of patients and thus contain their age and other epigenetic data. The Innsbruck team gained the knowledge in cooperation with the University of Denver and the Salk Institute in La Jolla (both USA).
