We FINALLY Found a Way To Starve Cancer

00:18:11
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze2rmsLiTfA

Zusammenfassung

TLDRThe video discusses the historical and modern understanding of cancer's metabolism, particularly focusing on the Warburg effect, where cancer cells consume glucose inefficiently. It explores various dietary approaches aimed at starving cancer, such as the ketogenic diet, but highlights their inconsistent results. Recent research from UCSF suggests that genetically engineered fat cells, or beige fat, could compete with tumors for glucose, potentially leading to new cancer therapies. The video emphasizes the importance of curiosity in scientific progress and the potential future of cancer treatment.

Mitbringsel

  • 🧬 Cancer has a voracious appetite for glucose.
  • 🍽️ Historical attempts to starve cancer included various diets.
  • 🔬 The Warburg effect explains cancer's inefficient energy use.
  • 🧊 Brown fat can compete with tumors for glucose.
  • 💡 Recent studies suggest engineered fat cells may inhibit tumor growth.
  • ⚗️ Living cell therapy uses fat cells to starve cancer.
  • 📉 Many anti-cancer diets lack scientific support.
  • 🔍 Curiosity drives scientific breakthroughs.
  • 🌱 Future treatments may focus on starving tumors rather than traditional methods.
  • 🧪 Research continues to refine these promising therapies.

Zeitleiste

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    This video begins by exploring humanity's historical attempts to understand and control cancer, referencing bizarre methods from the past, such as applying raw meat to tumors. The discussion shifts toward modern research from the University of California, San Francisco which suggests that fat may be a potential ally in starving cancer cells. It introduces Otto Warburg's early 20th-century findings, where he determined that cancer cells absorb glucose differently and are highly active in their consumption, revealing cancer's voracious appetite.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    Building on Warburg's theories, various cancer diets, including the ketogenic and Budwig diets, are examined. Despite initial enthusiasm for starving cancer cells by cutting glucose and carbohydrates, scientific evidence has largely failed to support these diets as effective treatments. The video highlights that tumors can adapt and thrive despite attempts to restrict their nutrient intake, illustrating the complex relationship between cancer and metabolism. Moreover, studies on metformin's impact on cancer rates in diabetic patients indicate that while it lowers risks, it doesn't effectively treat existing tumors, reinforcing the resilience of cancer cells.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:18:11

    The latter part of the video explores innovative research involving brown fat that competes with tumors for glucose in cold environments. Scientists at UCSF have engineered white fat cells to exhibit brown fat properties, creating 'beige fat' that efficiently consumes nutrients and inhibits tumor growth. Preliminary human studies show promise, suggesting that manipulating fat could be a new therapeutic approach to cancer treatment, focusing on starving tumors without the side effects of traditional therapies. The video concludes with reflections on scientific progress and the continuum of research that informs future cancer treatments.

Mind Map

Video-Fragen und Antworten

  • What is the Warburg effect?

    The Warburg effect refers to the observation that cancer cells preferentially consume glucose and produce lactic acid, even in the presence of oxygen, leading to inefficient energy production.

  • Can diet starve cancer?

    While some diets, like the ketogenic diet, aimed to starve cancer by cutting off glucose, studies have shown inconsistent benefits in tumor shrinkage or survival.

  • What is brown fat?

    Brown fat is a type of fat that burns energy and generates heat, playing a role in thermogenesis, unlike white fat which primarily stores energy.

  • How can brown fat help in cancer treatment?

    Research suggests that activating brown fat can compete with tumors for glucose, potentially starving them of their primary fuel.

  • What is living cell therapy?

    Living cell therapy involves using genetically modified fat cells to outcompete cancer cells for nutrients, potentially leading to tumor shrinkage.

  • What are beige fat cells?

    Beige fat cells are genetically engineered cells that behave like brown fat, capable of consuming glucose more efficiently than cancer cells.

  • What is the significance of the UCSF study?

    The UCSF study demonstrated that genetically engineered beige fat cells could significantly inhibit tumor growth by competing for glucose.

  • What challenges remain for this therapy?

    Further research is needed to refine the method, ensure safety and efficacy, and address potential tumor adaptations.

  • What is the potential future of cancer treatment?

    Future cancer treatments may involve using enhanced cells to starve tumors rather than traditional methods like chemotherapy or radiation.

  • What role does curiosity play in scientific progress?

    Curiosity drives scientific inquiry, leading to breakthroughs as researchers build on each other's work across generations.

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Automatisches Blättern:
  • 00:00:00
    A portion of this video is sponsored by
  • 00:00:02
    Radio Code. For centuries, cancer has
  • 00:00:04
    been thought of as an insidious disease,
  • 00:00:06
    an insatiable force consuming the body
  • 00:00:08
    from the inside out. In the 1600s,
  • 00:00:10
    physicians even tried feeding it,
  • 00:00:12
    literally. Applying raw meat to tumor
  • 00:00:14
    areas in a desperate hope that cancer
  • 00:00:16
    would select stake over patient. With
  • 00:00:18
    morbid fascination, the idea of somehow
  • 00:00:20
    controlling cancer's hunger has
  • 00:00:22
    permeated everything from old wives
  • 00:00:23
    tales recommending fasting. I feel like
  • 00:00:26
    a new man to their modern-day
  • 00:00:28
    equivalent, your friendly neighborhood
  • 00:00:30
    wellness guru. And it was a so-called
  • 00:00:32
    wellness warrior. Bel Gibson admits she
  • 00:00:34
    made up the whole story. But is there
  • 00:00:36
    any meat to this idea? Well, maybe. And
  • 00:00:39
    it comes from a kind of unexpected
  • 00:00:41
    place. Fat. Those extra holiday pounds
  • 00:00:44
    may have inspired a team at the
  • 00:00:45
    University of California, San Francisco,
  • 00:00:47
    who just published their latest findings
  • 00:00:49
    in Nature Biotechnology on how fat may
  • 00:00:52
    be our first weapon capable of starving
  • 00:00:54
    cancer. No radiation, no chemo, just fat
  • 00:00:58
    doing what fat does best. Welcome to a
  • 00:01:00
    series that I'm calling on the shoulders
  • 00:01:01
    of giants. Because to me, when you want
  • 00:01:03
    to peer into the distance and understand
  • 00:01:04
    the future of what is possible, you need
  • 00:01:06
    to look down sometimes to see whose
  • 00:01:08
    shoulders you're actually standing on.
  • 00:01:09
    So, let's cut the fat, reach for another
  • 00:01:11
    Dorito, and start at the beginning. How
  • 00:01:12
    do we understand cancer's hunger for the
  • 00:01:14
    very first
  • 00:01:19
    time? In the early 1900s, German
  • 00:01:22
    physiologist Otto Warberg was fascinated
  • 00:01:24
    by how cells generate energy. In
  • 00:01:27
    particular, the differences between
  • 00:01:28
    normal and cancerous cells and what
  • 00:01:30
    allowed cancer to grow so quickly. At
  • 00:01:32
    the time, scientists knew that cells
  • 00:01:34
    needed glucose and oxygen to survive.
  • 00:01:36
    But the exact process, like glycolysis,
  • 00:01:38
    the KB cycle, or any of those other
  • 00:01:40
    things that haunt us from high school
  • 00:01:41
    biology class, was still reasonably
  • 00:01:43
    mysterious. Warberg set out to measure
  • 00:01:45
    how much oxygen cancer cells consumed.
  • 00:01:47
    In a petri dish, he laid healthy cells
  • 00:01:49
    and slices of tumor in a carefully
  • 00:01:51
    prepared nutrient solution and connected
  • 00:01:53
    them to his customuilt monometer to
  • 00:01:56
    track their oxygen use. The results
  • 00:01:58
    stunned him. Healthy cells consumed
  • 00:02:00
    oxygen at a rate he had seen time and
  • 00:02:02
    time again. But the tumor cells barely
  • 00:02:05
    used any oxygen at all. Believing this
  • 00:02:07
    was maybe a mistake, potentially due to
  • 00:02:09
    lack of nutrients in the solution, he
  • 00:02:10
    topped up the glucose levels in the
  • 00:02:12
    petri dishes and ran the experiment
  • 00:02:14
    again. This time, the results were even
  • 00:02:16
    more surprising. In the presence of
  • 00:02:18
    excess glucose, cancer cells stopped
  • 00:02:20
    using any oxygen at all. But how could
  • 00:02:22
    this be? Confused, Wahberg began adding
  • 00:02:25
    various testing agents to his solution.
  • 00:02:27
    When he added phenol red, he saw an
  • 00:02:29
    immediate bright yellow hue filled the
  • 00:02:31
    petri dish. His fast growing cancer
  • 00:02:33
    cells were thriving in a pool of acid.
  • 00:02:36
    Chemical analysis revealed it to be
  • 00:02:38
    lactic acid, the compound also produced
  • 00:02:40
    by muscle cells under extreme exertion.
  • 00:02:42
    But this wasn't just a minor increase.
  • 00:02:44
    In some cases, Wahberg recorded up to a
  • 00:02:46
    70fold rise in lactate production
  • 00:02:48
    compared to normal cells. Then came the
  • 00:02:51
    real revelation. He measured glucose
  • 00:02:53
    uptake across both cell types. Normal
  • 00:02:55
    tissue consumed about 16 mg of glucose
  • 00:02:58
    per 100cc of medium. Tumors over 70 mg,
  • 00:03:03
    a four-fold increase. Wahberg for the
  • 00:03:05
    very first time had proven that cancer
  • 00:03:07
    was genuinely a disease of voracious
  • 00:03:09
    appetite. But the core mystery remained.
  • 00:03:12
    If cancer cells weren't oxidizing
  • 00:03:14
    glucose, what were they doing? In
  • 00:03:16
    healthy cells, glucose is broken down
  • 00:03:17
    through glycolysis, then shuttled into
  • 00:03:19
    the mitochondria, powerhouse of the
  • 00:03:21
    cell, for oxidative phosphorilation, a
  • 00:03:23
    highly efficient process that for each
  • 00:03:25
    molecule of glucose produces over 30
  • 00:03:27
    molecules of ATP, the energy used by
  • 00:03:30
    cells. But in cancer cells, Warberg saw
  • 00:03:32
    something else entirely, a reversion to
  • 00:03:34
    a primitive, inefficient pathway. They
  • 00:03:37
    were stopping at glycolysis, producing
  • 00:03:39
    just 2 ATP per glucose, and dumping the
  • 00:03:43
    rest as lactic acid. Warberg proposed
  • 00:03:45
    something radical that this switch
  • 00:03:48
    wasn't a symptom of cancer. It was the
  • 00:03:50
    cause. Warber believed that damaged
  • 00:03:52
    respiration, a defect in the
  • 00:03:53
    mitochondrial function, forced cells to
  • 00:03:55
    adopt glycolysis as default and that
  • 00:03:57
    this shift was what triggered
  • 00:03:59
    uncontrolled cell growth. This idea
  • 00:04:00
    would become known as the Warberg
  • 00:04:02
    effect. That cancer would throw
  • 00:04:03
    efficiency to the wind and take a growth
  • 00:04:05
    at all costs approach. While not
  • 00:04:07
    completely universal, this increased
  • 00:04:09
    glucose consumption is seen in 70 to 80%
  • 00:04:11
    of cancers to varying degrees. We can
  • 00:04:14
    actually see cancer's hunger in real
  • 00:04:16
    time thanks to a technique called
  • 00:04:17
    posetron emission tomography or PET
  • 00:04:19
    imaging. It works by injecting a patient
  • 00:04:21
    with radioactively labeled glucose,
  • 00:04:23
    essentially glowing sugar, then tracing
  • 00:04:25
    where in the body that glucose gets
  • 00:04:27
    consumed most rapidly. That bright spot
  • 00:04:29
    in the pancreas is a tumor so
  • 00:04:31
    metabolically active that it's
  • 00:04:33
    comparable with the brain and heart in
  • 00:04:35
    terms of glucose usage. It's not just
  • 00:04:37
    growing, it's feasting. In this second
  • 00:04:39
    image taken after several rounds of
  • 00:04:40
    chemotherapy, that bright spot is gone.
  • 00:04:43
    The tumor's metabolic signal has
  • 00:04:44
    vanished. Hopefully a sign that the
  • 00:04:46
    treatment has worked. Up until his
  • 00:04:48
    death, Wahberg was convinced of just one
  • 00:04:50
    thing. That cancer's hunger could be its
  • 00:04:52
    greatest weakness. And that became a
  • 00:04:54
    very compelling idea. Could the
  • 00:04:56
    treatment for cancer be as simple as
  • 00:04:59
    just limiting its energy supply? We'll
  • 00:05:01
    answer that question, but first I have
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    to thank the most relevant sponsor
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    Radiocode for sponsoring the channel.
  • 00:06:01
    Now, back to the
  • 00:06:05
    video. Wberg's research didn't just
  • 00:06:07
    influence science. It lit a spark in
  • 00:06:09
    public imagination. The idea that you
  • 00:06:11
    could starve cancer by cutting off its
  • 00:06:13
    fuel supply became deeply appealing,
  • 00:06:15
    especially to those seeking alternatives
  • 00:06:17
    to mainstream medicine. The earliest
  • 00:06:19
    approaches were surprisingly
  • 00:06:20
    straightforward. If cancer cells thrive
  • 00:06:22
    on glucose, could removing sugar and
  • 00:06:24
    carbs from the diet cut off their
  • 00:06:26
    supply? Enter the ketogenic diet.
  • 00:06:29
    Originally developed in the 1920s to
  • 00:06:31
    treat epilepsy, keto gained a new life
  • 00:06:33
    among cancer diet advocates. By
  • 00:06:35
    eliminating carbohydrates and replacing
  • 00:06:37
    them with fats and proteins, the theory
  • 00:06:39
    went you could lower blood glucose and
  • 00:06:41
    starve the tumor. On the surface, it
  • 00:06:43
    sounded entirely scientifically
  • 00:06:45
    possible. But trial after trial failed
  • 00:06:47
    to show any consistent benefit. Not for
  • 00:06:50
    tumor shrinkage, not for survival, and
  • 00:06:52
    that wasn't unique to keto. Every
  • 00:06:53
    so-called anti-cancer diet followed the
  • 00:06:56
    same pattern. big promises,
  • 00:06:58
    disappointing results. One of the most
  • 00:06:59
    prominent examples, the Budwig diet, was
  • 00:07:02
    deeply influenced by Warberg's theories.
  • 00:07:04
    Dr. Johanna Budwig believed cancer was
  • 00:07:06
    caused by faulty cellular respiration,
  • 00:07:08
    specifically that cells weren't
  • 00:07:09
    absorbing oxygen properly due to a lack
  • 00:07:11
    of essential fatty acids. Her solution,
  • 00:07:14
    a blend of flax seed oil and cottage
  • 00:07:16
    cheese, equal parts delicious, as
  • 00:07:18
    entirely unlikely to work. She claimed
  • 00:07:20
    it could restore healthy fat metabolism
  • 00:07:22
    and oxygen uptake in cells. But while
  • 00:07:23
    her recipe may have made headlines, no
  • 00:07:25
    scientific study ever showed it could
  • 00:07:27
    impact cancer's outcomes. It was wishful
  • 00:07:30
    thinking wrapped in scientific language.
  • 00:07:32
    The alkaline diet went down a similar
  • 00:07:33
    path. It claimed that certain foods
  • 00:07:35
    could shift the body's pH and neutralize
  • 00:07:37
    the lactic acid buildup around tumors,
  • 00:07:39
    but it mistood something fundamental
  • 00:07:40
    that the acidity is a byproduct of
  • 00:07:42
    cancer metabolism, not the cause. And
  • 00:07:44
    more importantly, the body tightly
  • 00:07:45
    regulates pH regardless of what you eat.
  • 00:07:48
    Again, no evidence of benefit. And then
  • 00:07:50
    we got into slightly more dangerous
  • 00:07:51
    examples like Bel Gibson's whole pantry
  • 00:07:54
    movement. She built an entire wellness
  • 00:07:55
    empire on the claim that she'd cured her
  • 00:07:57
    cancer with diet and lifestyle changes.
  • 00:08:00
    But in the end, the only whole thing
  • 00:08:02
    about it was how much she'd made up. She
  • 00:08:04
    later admitted she'd never had cancer to
  • 00:08:06
    begin with. Time and time again, these
  • 00:08:07
    miracle diets failed the test of
  • 00:08:09
    scientific evidence. Some were rooted in
  • 00:08:11
    genuine scientific questions. Others
  • 00:08:13
    were pure
  • 00:08:15
    pseudocience. But none could outsmart
  • 00:08:17
    the problem at the heart of cancer. It
  • 00:08:19
    is exceptionally good at finding what it
  • 00:08:21
    needs. As a tumor grows, it burns
  • 00:08:23
    through nutrients faster than its
  • 00:08:25
    surroundings can provide. The local
  • 00:08:27
    tissue becomes hypoxic, oxygen starved,
  • 00:08:29
    and the tumor responds by sending out
  • 00:08:31
    molecular distress signals, veg F, or
  • 00:08:34
    vascular endothelial growth factor. This
  • 00:08:36
    triggers nearby blood vessels to sprout
  • 00:08:38
    new branches, a process called
  • 00:08:39
    angioenesis, delivering fresh blood,
  • 00:08:42
    oxygen, and nutrients straight to the
  • 00:08:43
    tumor's door. And this brings us to the
  • 00:08:45
    brutal truth. This is the fundamental
  • 00:08:47
    flaw in any whole body approach to
  • 00:08:49
    starving cancer. Whether through diet,
  • 00:08:51
    fasting, or anything else. Even if you
  • 00:08:53
    put your entire body into a nutrient or
  • 00:08:55
    energy deficit, cancer cells have
  • 00:08:57
    evolved to protect themselves, they
  • 00:08:59
    suffer less than the surrounding healthy
  • 00:09:01
    tissues. Or put more simply, you starve
  • 00:09:04
    before the cancer does. And to be clear,
  • 00:09:06
    this isn't just a problem for
  • 00:09:07
    alternative medicine. This is a
  • 00:09:08
    challenge even for traditional
  • 00:09:10
    clinically tested therapies. One of the
  • 00:09:12
    most accidentally fascinating
  • 00:09:13
    discoveries in this space come from a
  • 00:09:15
    drug you've probably heard of. Metformin
  • 00:09:17
    prescribed to lower blood glucose in
  • 00:09:19
    diabetics. Metformin is one of the most
  • 00:09:21
    widely used drugs in the world. Over 86
  • 00:09:23
    million prescriptions were filled in the
  • 00:09:25
    US alone in 2022. When researchers
  • 00:09:28
    looked at cancer rates among diabetic
  • 00:09:29
    patients, they noticed something
  • 00:09:31
    striking. Those taking metformin were
  • 00:09:33
    significantly less likely to develop
  • 00:09:35
    cancer by anywhere from 30 to 50%
  • 00:09:38
    compared to diabetics who weren't on the
  • 00:09:40
    drug. But if a patient went on to
  • 00:09:42
    develop cancer, that benefit
  • 00:09:44
    disappeared. Metformin didn't improve
  • 00:09:46
    survival rates, it couldn't stop a tumor
  • 00:09:48
    that was already entrenched. So the
  • 00:09:49
    question became, if cutting supplies off
  • 00:09:51
    at the whole body level doesn't work,
  • 00:09:54
    what if we flipped the problem around?
  • 00:09:56
    What if instead of starving the entire
  • 00:09:58
    system, we robbed the tumor right at its
  • 00:10:00
    doorstep just before the nutrients ever
  • 00:10:03
    arrived?
  • 00:10:07
    In 2002, a group of radiologists and
  • 00:10:09
    researchers split between the University
  • 00:10:11
    Hospital Zurich and the University of
  • 00:10:13
    Ottawa made an unexpected observation.
  • 00:10:15
    While analyzing PET scans, they noticed
  • 00:10:17
    a consistent strong signal lighting up
  • 00:10:19
    around the neck and spine in some
  • 00:10:21
    adults. At first, they assumed it was
  • 00:10:23
    just muscle activity, which does uptake
  • 00:10:26
    more glucose when active. But something
  • 00:10:28
    didn't fit. The signal got even stronger
  • 00:10:30
    when the subjects were exposed to cold
  • 00:10:32
    temperatures. Curious, they compared the
  • 00:10:35
    PET images with CT scans and realized
  • 00:10:37
    this tissue wasn't muscle at all. It was
  • 00:10:40
    brown adapose tissue, also known as
  • 00:10:43
    brown fat. Now, brown fat is very
  • 00:10:45
    different from white fat that most of us
  • 00:10:46
    familiar with, the kind that simply
  • 00:10:48
    stores energy. Brown fat burns energy.
  • 00:10:51
    It generates heat, keeping the body's
  • 00:10:52
    temperature stable, and is critical for
  • 00:10:54
    newborns who can't shiver effectively
  • 00:10:56
    yet. But the scientific consensus at the
  • 00:10:58
    time was that brown fat virtually
  • 00:11:00
    disappeared after infancy. Adults
  • 00:11:02
    weren't supposed to have it. Yet, there
  • 00:11:04
    it was, glowing brightly in the scans.
  • 00:11:06
    Subsequent studies, particularly by a
  • 00:11:07
    group of researchers in Japan, confirmed
  • 00:11:09
    it. When healthy adults were kept in a
  • 00:11:11
    19° C room, this is the room. Cool
  • 00:11:14
    enough to trigger thermogenesis, but not
  • 00:11:16
    cold enough to cause shivering. Their
  • 00:11:17
    brown fat lit up on PET scans. Not only
  • 00:11:20
    was it still present, it was
  • 00:11:21
    metabolically active. At the Karolinska
  • 00:11:23
    Institute in Sweden, researchers decided
  • 00:11:26
    to take this discovery one step further.
  • 00:11:28
    They wanted to understand how brown fats
  • 00:11:29
    might interact with cancer. They
  • 00:11:31
    designed a simple experiment. Mice were
  • 00:11:33
    implanted with tumor cells and then
  • 00:11:35
    split into two groups. One group was
  • 00:11:37
    kept cozy, living at 30° C, a
  • 00:11:39
    temperature that's warm enough that the
  • 00:11:40
    body doesn't need to generate extra
  • 00:11:42
    heat. The other group was moved to a
  • 00:11:43
    brisk 4° C environment. Cold enough to
  • 00:11:46
    activate thermogenesis, but not cold
  • 00:11:48
    enough to cause constant shivering. Over
  • 00:11:50
    the next several weeks, the researchers
  • 00:11:51
    carefully tracked tumor growth and
  • 00:11:53
    glucose uptake using PET scans, and the
  • 00:11:55
    results were compelling. In the warm
  • 00:11:57
    environment, tumors showed strong uptake
  • 00:11:58
    of radioactive glucose, just as you'd
  • 00:12:00
    expect. But in the cold exposed mice, it
  • 00:12:02
    was a different story. The brown fat
  • 00:12:04
    activated for thermogenesis, competing
  • 00:12:06
    aggressively for glucose. And as a
  • 00:12:08
    result, the tumors became starved with
  • 00:12:10
    their primary fuel. The impact of which
  • 00:12:12
    was dramatic. Tumor glucose uptake
  • 00:12:14
    dropped significantly. By day 20 after
  • 00:12:16
    tumor implantation, researchers observed
  • 00:12:18
    an 80% inhibition of tumor growth
  • 00:12:21
    compared to the warm group. And even
  • 00:12:23
    more striking, the overall survival
  • 00:12:24
    rates of cold exposed mice was double
  • 00:12:26
    that of the warm group. But could this
  • 00:12:28
    cold induced effect actually work in
  • 00:12:30
    humans? In 2021, researchers tested the
  • 00:12:33
    idea in a very limited but intriguing
  • 00:12:35
    human study. They worked with a patient
  • 00:12:36
    diagnosed with Hodkdins lymphoma,
  • 00:12:38
    exposing them to mild cold, just 16° C
  • 00:12:41
    for 4 days. PET scans showed clear
  • 00:12:44
    activation of brown fat and more
  • 00:12:46
    importantly a noticeable decrease in
  • 00:12:48
    glucose uptake at the tumor sites. It
  • 00:12:50
    wasn't a cure and it wasn't
  • 00:12:51
    comprehensive, but it was the first real
  • 00:12:53
    evidence in a human that brown fat could
  • 00:12:55
    outco compete cancer for its fuel.
  • 00:12:57
    effectively starving a tumor. A glimmer
  • 00:13:00
    of hope, maybe, just maybe, Wahberg's
  • 00:13:02
    century old findings could still shape
  • 00:13:04
    modern cancer therapy. But there was
  • 00:13:06
    obviously a problem. To maintain the
  • 00:13:08
    effect, the patient would likely have to
  • 00:13:09
    stand in what's essentially a walk-in
  • 00:13:11
    fridge for weeks, possibly months. Hey,
  • 00:13:13
    look, a freezer man. While also avoiding
  • 00:13:15
    sugar or any excess glucose, not a
  • 00:13:17
    perfect recipe for a body already
  • 00:13:19
    weakened by battling cancer. So the
  • 00:13:21
    question became, could we take these
  • 00:13:23
    ideas and turn them into something
  • 00:13:24
    practical? Something targeted,
  • 00:13:26
    controlled, and therapeutic, something
  • 00:13:28
    that didn't require living in a freezer.
  • 00:13:31
    Woohoo! Look at that blubber fly. Nurse
  • 00:13:33
    cancel my water clock. Just published in
  • 00:13:35
    Nature Biotechnology, scientists at the
  • 00:13:37
    University of California, San Francisco,
  • 00:13:39
    asked a bold question. Could we skip the
  • 00:13:42
    freezing cold and still harness brown
  • 00:13:44
    fat's metabolic power, or more simply,
  • 00:13:46
    keep the hunger, lose the shivering?
  • 00:13:47
    Using crisper, they began genetically
  • 00:13:49
    engineering white fat cells to behave
  • 00:13:51
    more like brown fat. By inserting
  • 00:13:53
    upregulated specific genes from brown
  • 00:13:55
    fat cells, they aimed to create a new
  • 00:13:57
    kind of cell, one that could outco
  • 00:13:59
    compete cancer for nutrients without
  • 00:14:01
    needing to be cold activated. They
  • 00:14:03
    called these hybrid cells the slightly
  • 00:14:04
    unattractive sounding beige fat. To
  • 00:14:06
    figure out what genes worked best, they
  • 00:14:08
    ran a transwell experiment where two
  • 00:14:10
    different cell populations share the
  • 00:14:12
    same nutrient pool but are physically
  • 00:14:13
    separated. One gene in particular stood
  • 00:14:16
    out. UCP1, a key player in
  • 00:14:19
    thermogenesis. When they tested UCP-1
  • 00:14:21
    modified fat cells against cancer cells,
  • 00:14:23
    the results were shocking. At the end of
  • 00:14:25
    the experiment, almost no cancer cells
  • 00:14:27
    remained. Meanwhile, the beige fat cells
  • 00:14:30
    were thriving. Worried this was an
  • 00:14:31
    error, they repeated the trial again and
  • 00:14:33
    again and got the same outcome every
  • 00:14:35
    single time. They had taken the
  • 00:14:36
    competitive fuel guzzling metabolism of
  • 00:14:38
    brown fat, supercharged it, and severed
  • 00:14:40
    its dependence on cold. From fat, they
  • 00:14:43
    had made a weapon. To test it in a
  • 00:14:44
    living system, they turned the most
  • 00:14:46
    efficient UCP-1 modified cells into fat
  • 00:14:48
    organoids, tiny lab grown clumps of
  • 00:14:51
    tissue that function like miniature fat
  • 00:14:52
    organs, and they implanted them next to
  • 00:14:54
    tumor sites, like a set of metabolic
  • 00:14:56
    love handles poised to siphon off
  • 00:14:57
    nutrients before they ever reach the
  • 00:14:59
    tumor. 3 weeks later, they compared
  • 00:15:01
    tumor growth with a control group. Now,
  • 00:15:03
    fair warning, if you're a little bit
  • 00:15:04
    squeamish, you might want to look away,
  • 00:15:05
    but here's what they found. Tumors
  • 00:15:07
    adjacent to the beige fat organoids has
  • 00:15:10
    shrunk by more than 50%. And they
  • 00:15:12
    weren't just beating one type of cancer.
  • 00:15:14
    They outco competed aggressive cell
  • 00:15:15
    lines from breast, pancreatic, colon,
  • 00:15:18
    and prostate cancer. No chemotherapy, no
  • 00:15:20
    radiation, simply by being better at
  • 00:15:23
    consuming glucose. Turning one of the
  • 00:15:24
    body's own metabolic tools into a
  • 00:15:26
    precision weapon against one of its
  • 00:15:28
    greatest flaws. The researchers called
  • 00:15:30
    it living cell therapy. And fat, it
  • 00:15:32
    turns out, is a perfect medium for it.
  • 00:15:34
    Fat cells are easy to extract. We've
  • 00:15:36
    been doing it through liposuction for
  • 00:15:37
    decades. They grow well in a lab, can be
  • 00:15:40
    genetically modified with precision, and
  • 00:15:42
    crucially, they're easy to re-implant
  • 00:15:44
    using wellestablished medical
  • 00:15:46
    techniques, as evidenced by the myriad
  • 00:15:47
    of enhanced buttocks that we've seen
  • 00:15:49
    parading around the earth. Not a topic I
  • 00:15:50
    thought I'd cover in this video. Most
  • 00:15:52
    importantly, fat plays nicely with the
  • 00:15:54
    immune system. We know this from decades
  • 00:15:56
    of cosmetic surgery. Reimplanted fat
  • 00:15:58
    generally integrates smoothly without
  • 00:16:00
    triggering serious immune rejection.
  • 00:16:02
    That makes it an ideal candidate for a
  • 00:16:05
    cell-based therapeutic. Now, of course,
  • 00:16:07
    there is still further work to be done,
  • 00:16:08
    refining the method, scaling it up, and
  • 00:16:10
    eventually moving through rigorous
  • 00:16:11
    safety and efficacy trials. And it's
  • 00:16:13
    very reasonable to ask questions like,
  • 00:16:14
    "What if the tumors respond by ramping
  • 00:16:16
    up angioenesis?" Or, "If you manage to
  • 00:16:18
    starve them a little, many cancers might
  • 00:16:20
    just switch metabolic gears, burning fat
  • 00:16:22
    rather than glucose." Tackling those
  • 00:16:24
    problems is maybe for the next
  • 00:16:26
    generation of scientists to solve. But
  • 00:16:28
    now, at least you know whose shoulders
  • 00:16:30
    you're standing on. We aren't there yet,
  • 00:16:32
    but the concept is here, and the biology
  • 00:16:34
    broadly is sound. So imagine a future
  • 00:16:36
    perhaps not too far off where instead of
  • 00:16:38
    flooding the body with radiation or
  • 00:16:40
    chemotherapy, we seed it with enhanced
  • 00:16:43
    cells engineered not to attack the
  • 00:16:44
    cancer directly, but to starve it, and
  • 00:16:47
    we turn one of the body's softest
  • 00:16:48
    tissues into one of its sharpest medical
  • 00:16:50
    tools, so that one day in the future,
  • 00:16:52
    cancer may be left out to
  • 00:16:54
    starve. There's a quote I often come
  • 00:16:57
    back to about standing on the shoulders
  • 00:16:58
    of giants. It's largely how I think
  • 00:17:00
    about science, and it's the bit that has
  • 00:17:01
    always been interesting to me. It's the
  • 00:17:03
    unbroken chain of curiosity, often
  • 00:17:05
    stretching back across generations of
  • 00:17:07
    the smartest folk that we have on the
  • 00:17:08
    planet. Someone asks a question, someone
  • 00:17:10
    builds a tool, someone else runs an
  • 00:17:12
    experiment. There's always full starts,
  • 00:17:14
    but everything seems impossible until
  • 00:17:16
    someone actually does it. That's the
  • 00:17:18
    part that's always drawn me in. Not just
  • 00:17:20
    the breakthroughs, but how we actually
  • 00:17:22
    get there piece by piece, standing on
  • 00:17:24
    what came before us. I feel super lucky
  • 00:17:26
    that here on YouTube as well as in my
  • 00:17:27
    day job, understanding the future of
  • 00:17:29
    what is possible and working alongside
  • 00:17:31
    those scientists to actually make it
  • 00:17:32
    happen is part of what I get to do. I'm
  • 00:17:34
    super grateful I get to play a small
  • 00:17:36
    role and that I get to share a glimpse
  • 00:17:38
    of those journeys with you guys here.
  • 00:17:40
    That's the part of this that I love the
  • 00:17:42
    most. There have been a lot of new folk
  • 00:17:43
    joining the channel recently since at
  • 00:17:45
    least my last long video. I know what
  • 00:17:47
    you're all actually here
  • 00:17:50
    for. We have some really cool stuff
  • 00:17:52
    coming up in the next few months. I'm
  • 00:17:54
    excited to share with you. The algorithm
  • 00:17:56
    thinks that you might like this video
  • 00:17:58
    next, so maybe check it out. Thanks very
  • 00:18:00
    much for watching and I'll see you guys
  • 00:18:01
    next time. Goodbye. I feel like a new
  • 00:18:04
    man.
  • 00:18:06
    Not a Dorito. Off-brand Dorito.
Tags
  • cancer
  • Warburg effect
  • metabolism
  • diet
  • brown fat
  • living cell therapy
  • UCSF
  • beige fat
  • research
  • treatment