Sugar Molecule Links Red Meat Consumption and Elevated Cancer Risk in Mice

[undeterred]

Neu5Gc, a non-human sugar found in red meat, promotes inflammation and cancer progression in rodents

December 29, 2014 | Heather Buschman, PhD

While people who eat a lot of red meat are known to be at higher risk for certain cancers, other carnivores are not, prompting researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine to investigate the possible tumor-forming role of a sugar called Neu5Gc, which is naturally found in most mammals but not in humans. In a study published in the Dec. 29 online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists found that feeding Neu5Gc to mice engineered to be deficient in the sugar (like humans) significantly promoted spontaneous cancers. The study did not involve exposure to carcinogens or artificially inducing cancers, further implicating Neu5Gc as a key link between red meat consumption and cancer.

“Until now, all of our evidence linking Neu5Gc to cancer was circumstantial or indirectly predicted from somewhat artificial experimental setups,” said principal investigator Ajit Varki, MD, Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Cellular and Molecular Medicine and member of the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center. “This is the first time we have directly shown that mimicking the exact situation in humans — feeding non-human Neu5Gc and inducing anti-Neu5Gc antibodies — increases spontaneous cancers in mice.”

Varki’s team first conducted a systematic survey of common foods. They found that red meats (beef, pork and lamb) are rich in Neu5Gc, affirming that foods of mammalian origin such as these are the primary sources of Neu5Gc in the human diet. The molecule was found to be bio-available, too, meaning it can be distributed to tissues throughout the body via the bloodstream. The researchers had previously discovered that animal Neu5Gc can be absorbed into human tissues. In this study, they hypothesized that eating red meat could lead to inflammation if the body’s immune system is constantly generating antibodies against consumed animal Neu5Gc, a foreign molecule. Chronic inflammation is known to promote tumor formation.

To test this hypothesis, the team engineered mice to mimic humans in that they lacked their own Neu5Gc and produced antibodies against it. When these mice were fed Neu5Gc, they developed systemic inflammation. Spontaneous tumor formation increased fivefold and Neu5Gc accumulated in the tumors. “The final proof in humans will be much harder to come by,” Varki said. “But on a more general note, this work may also help explain potential connections of red meat consumption to other diseases exacerbated by chronic inflammation, such as atherosclerosis and type 2 diabetes.

Read more: http://health.ucsd.edu/news/releases/Pages/2014-12-29-sugar-molecule-in-red-meat-linked-to-cancer.aspx

[pangaia]

1. "The China Study"

[JDDavis]

2. Yes, but were the mice happier in their short lives?

Did hey measure that?

What is the conclusion from this study? That mice should not be fed artifficaily diets three times the ration of what modern affluent humankind consumed in advanced western nations?

Give us percentages and ratios

Or debunk the study as one of 1000 that came out in the last 10 years.

Of course, our diet should consist of more fruits and veggies.

Of course we should eat less red meat

Of course we should eat more expensive fish, etc.

One study, kind of weak. Worthy of a thread?

[longship]

3. Mice models do not often translate to human health.

Why? Because they are mice, not humans.

What these kind of studies do is provide basic science research in order to find plausibility for possible future human trials. They do absolutely nothing for arguing for similar human intervention.

Because they are MICE! Not humans.

This kind of research is important, but it rarely leads directly to important breakthroughs. It can, however, lead to avenues of future research which can make a breakthrough.

There is a huge difference between them.

[qazplm]

4. yet there was another study out of Maryland I believe

just a couple of days ago with evidence that 2/3rds of cancers are due to random mutations, i.e. bad luck, and not diet or genetics.

What ISNT on the list of things that some study has found has a link to cancer?

[Igel]

5. There are no studies showing that accidental death might cause cancer.

So there's one.

(The problem is there is no one disease called "cancer.&quot

[hedda_foil]

6. That's one heck of an important finding.

I wonder how humans managed not to have this sugar naturally, when other meat eating mammals do have it. What about our ape cousins? They eat meat when they can, which isn't all that often. Our food animals are all vegetarians. Is the role of Neu5Gc related to that?