Julio José Jiménez-Alonso

A Diet Lacking Selenium, but Not Zinc, Copper or Manganese, Induces Anticancer Activity in Mice with Metastatic Cancers

Selenium, zinc, copper, and manganese are essential components of antioxidant enzymes involved in the elimination of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Given that cancer cells produce high levels of ROS and the accumulation of ROS can lead to cell death, cancer cells may be susceptible to strategies that reduce ROS elimination. In this work, we prepared several artificial diets that contained normal carbohydrate, protein, and lipid levels but lacked selenium, zinc, copper, or manganese. The anticancer activity of these diets was examined in a metastatic ovarian cancer model, established by injecting ID8 Trp53−/− murine ovarian cancer cells into the peritoneal cavity of C57BL/6JRj mice. Treatments started 15 days later and consisted of replacing a normal diet with one of the artificial diets for several weeks. A significant improvement in mice survival was observed when the normal diet was replaced with the selenium-free diet. Diets lacking zinc, copper, or manganese showed no significant impact on mice survival. All diets were very well tolerated. The anticancer efficacy of a diet lacking selenium was confirmed in mice with metastatic colon cancer and in mice with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. These results suggest that diets lacking selenium hold potential for the treatment of metastatic cancers.

Artificial Diets with Altered Levels of Sulfur Amino Acids Induce Anticancer Activity in Mice with Metastatic Colon Cancer, Ovarian Cancer and Renal Cell Carcinoma

Sulfur-containing amino acids methionine (Met), cysteine (Cys) and taurine (Tau) are common dietary constituents with important cellular roles. Met restriction is already known to exert in vivo anticancer activity. However, since Met is a precursor of Cys and Cys produces Tau, the role of Cys and Tau in the anticancer activity of Met-restricted diets is poorly understood. In this work, we screened the in vivo anticancer activity of several Met-deficient artificial diets supplemented with Cys, Tau or both. Diet B1 (6% casein, 2.5% leucine, 0.2% Cys and 1% lipids) and diet B2B (6% casein, 5% glutamine, 2.5% leucine, 0.2% Tau and 1% lipids) showed the highest activity and were selected for further studies. Both diets induced marked anticancer activity in two animal models of metastatic colon cancer, which were established by injecting CT26.WT murine colon cancer cells in the tail vein or peritoneum of immunocompetent BALB/cAnNRj mice. Diets B1 and B2B also increased survival of mice with disseminated ovarian cancer (intraperitoneal ID8 Tp53−/− cells in C57BL/6JRj mice) and renal cell carcinoma (intraperitoneal Renca cells in BALB/cAnNRj mice). The high activity of diet B1 in mice with metastatic colon cancer may be useful in colon cancer therapy.