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How gut bacteria can impact treatments for cancer (Eat more tryptophan with your chemo, even with pancreatic cancer)
Medical Xpress / Nature ^ | March 1, 2023 | Bob Yirka / Joseph Tintelnot et al / Le Li et al

Posted on 03/02/2023 10:10:21 AM PST by ConservativeMind

A large team has discovered some of the ways gut bacteria can positively impact treatments for cancer. The group studied the impact of gut microbiota on chemotherapy given to patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Prior research has shown that chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer that has metastasized sometimes works well but is sometimes ineffective, and this difference may be tied to dietary resistance, though its source is not known. In this new study, the team looked at the possibility that certain microorganisms in the gut microbiome play a role in the process.

To better understand how the gut microbiome might play a role in chemotherapy effectiveness, the researchers collected blood samples from patients who were responding well and from those who were not. They found higher levels of the molecule 3-IAA in better responding patients. Further investigation showed that the molecules were produced by two strains of gut bacteria. The team then tried adding 3-IAA directly to food eaten by cancerous mouse models and found that they became more responsive to chemotherapy treatment, as well.

The research team noted that 3-IAA is produced in the gut when amino acids interact with tryptophan, an acid found in many types of food. Subsequent testing with cancerous mouse models revealed that raising amounts of food with the acid might help with chemotherapy.

While exploring why higher levels of 3-IAA help chemotherapy to work better, the team found that their presence led to modulating neutrophils, which are types of immune cells. The overall takeaway was that microbes in the gut can help fight cancer by sending chemicals through the bloodstream to remote tumors where they give chemotherapy chemicals a boost by inciting the immune system into action.

(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: cancer; chemotherapy; gut; gutbacteria; microbiome
Gut bacteria, tryptophan, and amino acids make chemo more successful.
1 posted on 03/02/2023 10:10:21 AM PST by ConservativeMind
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2 posted on 03/02/2023 10:11:00 AM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: ConservativeMind

3 posted on 03/02/2023 10:12:59 AM PST by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic... )
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To: ConservativeMind

Too Late the Phalarope... I knew this 8 years ago. ...
Nuthin new. I attended a lecture at a medical college
cancer symposium wherein a native doctor M.D. Ph.D.,
from Africa said the same thing for tryptophan only 8 years
ago. The Germans probably just copied all his
experiments/data and didn`t give him any credit.
Hundreds of cancer researchers know this is old data...
tryptophan already proven in the lab long tme ago.


4 posted on 03/02/2023 11:57:45 AM PST by bunkerhill7 (nyc is not there. )
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To: ConservativeMind

There’s studies suggesting the opposite.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33460767/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17644189/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29275469/


5 posted on 03/02/2023 12:48:26 PM PST by jimwatx
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To: jimwatx

None of those suggest “the opposite.” They all describe tryptophan being used WITHOUT CHEMO.

This study was specific to using chemo, only.


6 posted on 03/02/2023 2:41:46 PM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: ConservativeMind

It has to do with the metabolism of tryptophan irrespective of whether chemo is used.

” the enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) has recently attracted special attention. By catabolizing tryptophan to N-formyl-kynurenine, IDO starves T cells from this important amino acid rendering them incapable of mounting appropriate immune responses.”

“Finally, evidence emerges indicating that IDO possibly promotes tumor immune escape by inducing an immunoregulatory or an anergic T cell phenotype at a systemic level.”

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17644189/


7 posted on 03/02/2023 2:50:44 PM PST by jimwatx
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To: jimwatx

Neither reference is talking to anything with chemo.


8 posted on 03/02/2023 2:53:35 PM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: jimwatx

Tryptophan-induced pathogenesis of breast cancer

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26957990/


9 posted on 03/02/2023 2:56:11 PM PST by jimwatx
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To: ConservativeMind

Doesn’t matter, tryptophan is metabolized similarly with or without chemo.


10 posted on 03/02/2023 3:00:23 PM PST by jimwatx
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To: jimwatx

Take your complaint up with the two authors who proved it helps the prognosis with chemo patients, and tell off the survivors, too.


11 posted on 03/02/2023 4:03:09 PM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: ConservativeMind

Yeah well I don’t know if if tryptophan is good or bad overall, I just figured I would at least note that there were conflicting studies so people could weigh the evidence before loading up on tryptophan if they have cancer.


12 posted on 03/02/2023 4:34:17 PM PST by jimwatx
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To: jimwatx

You’re exactly right.....tryptophan had ‘issues before’ the cancer studies.


13 posted on 03/02/2023 4:36:39 PM PST by caww (O death, when you seized my Lord, you lost your grip on me......)
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To: jimwatx

I agree that take.


14 posted on 03/02/2023 4:38:34 PM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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