Daily Health Bulletin

A unique study appearing in the January 8, 2010 issue of the journal Cell, may shed some light on the role of fats and cancer.

The work out of California based biomedical research organization The Scripps Research Institute finds that an enzyme that normally helps to break down stored fats becomes highly active in some cancer cells, making them more aggressive and more likely to spread.

These findings might help to explain the reported link that many experts believe exists between obesity and cancer.

“Historically, research has focused on the mechanisms leading to cancer formation, and therapies have focused on taking out cancer cells,” explains contributing author Benjamin Cravatt, chair of the Scripps Research Department of Chemical Physiology. “But here we were looking for pathways that lead to cancer aggressiveness.”

As a cancer grows, some cells take on more aggressive characteristics – the ability to invade an area and spread to other parts of the body.

One enzyme in particular, known as monoacylglycerol lipase (or MAGL for short), was detected by the team using a technique pioneered in Cravatt’s lab – activity based protein profiling that allows experts to see all active enzymes in a cell at the same time.

MAGL was found to go into overdrive in cancer cells, breaking down stored fats to produce large amounts of free fatty acids. These are the building blocks of cell membranes and fatty molecules that act as signals between cells.

Free fatty acids then produce other smaller molecules that encourage cancer growth and progression.

The research found that MAGL was highly elevated in aggressive cancers. It was also found to change cancer cells to a more malignant form.

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Stored Fats = Aggressive Cancer Continued…

While the enzyme was known to break down stored fats, the ability to regulate free fatty acid production was a new revelation brought by the research. “As cancer cells become more aggressive, the lipase is increased and its activity is targeted to the release of free fatty acid,” adds Daniel Nomura, a postdoc in Cravatt’s lab.

Said another way, cancer cells co-opted MAGL’s activity in order to support their own progression.

At present, there are more than 100 different cancers and all of them begin in cells, the body’s basic unit of life. In 2008 the U.S. saw over 1,437,180 new cancer cases diagnosed, not including nonmelanoma skin cancer.

And while rates of cancer diagnosis and death are declining, too many people are still finding themselves face-to-face with this dreadful potentially deadly disease.

The researchers are hoping that understanding aggression-promoting MAGL might reveal a new way to treat aggressive cancers or prevent cancer progression.

If the findings were to bring a new cancer therapy, the advantages over the therapies we’re using today could be significant. Since the MAGL enzyme isn’t necessary for cell survival, but only for progression of the cell, it may be safer to target because it isn’t involved in a survival mechanism common to all cells.

You should also know that eating high fat foods introduces free fatty acids into the body on a regular basis and contributes to obesity, which increases your risks for diseases and chronic health problems.

There are things you can do to help yourself reduce the high fat food you eat by shopping smart and cooking with care.

By making slow, steady changes to the foods you choose (at home and in restaurants) you can gradually, painlessly be eating a diet that’s free of most of the unhealthy foods, and the health consequences, that come with them.

Daily Health Bulletin
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