The Glucose 'Trojan Horse' 2-DG (2-Deoxy D-Glucose) for Cancer Plus OXPHOS Demystified!

Helping you to infiltrate Cancer Metabolism and destroy the tumour cells!

What is OXPHOS? Oxidative Phosphorylation

Photo by NOAA on Unsplash

We all know how easy it is to become overwhelmed in the oncology space by the dizzying biochemistry and the complicated functions, so let’s lay this out simply.

OXPHOS is how our normal cells make energy with OXygen present.

Imagine a battery generator in each cell, each generator takes in fuel in a kind of constant flux (which in cancer is primarily sugar/glucose). The generator then converts that fuel into units of energy. In biochemistry, these energy units are called ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate).

This battery is called a Mitochondrion (singular). These Mitochondria (plural) can become damaged for so many different reasons including pollution, stress, poor diet.. we know plenty these days about the risk factors for developing cancer, genetics is a very small part of that risk, not the main driver that we are told it is.

When our Mitochondria are damaged, they make a lot of ROS (radical oxygen species) that damage the cell, leaving it vulnerable to cell death or apoptosis.

The cell tries to avoid death by signalling to the body to increase substances like HIF1a (Hypoxia Inducible Factor 1 alpha) which shut down the broken mitochondria (and therefore shut down OXPHOS) which stops the production of the damaging ROS.

Since the cell can’t make energy properly anymore through OXPHOS, because it is now shut down, this drives the cell to produce energy through a different process called glycolysis, otherwise known as fermentation.

This fermentation pathway is known as The Warburg Effect.

Disordered metabolism is one of the Hallmarks of Cancer.

The Hallmarks of Cancer

Hanahan & Weinberg in 2000 stated that there were 6 hallmarks of cancer and in 2022 this was updated to show 10 Hallmarks. These were created so that we could start to understand the distinct characteristics of the varied and complex set of diseases that we all know as just ‘Cancer’.

The Ten Hallmarks are:

1. Sustained proliferative signaling

2. Evading growth suppressors

3. Resisting cell death

4. Enabling replicative immortality

5. Inducing angiogenesis

6. Activating invasion and metastasis

7. Genome instability and mutation

8. Tumor promoting inflammation

9. Deregulating cellular energetics

10. Avoiding immune destruction

When we work with supplements and off-label drugs in Integrative Metabolic Oncology, we use our knowledge of the pathways that the individual’s cancer has been shown to take (using direct testing or from research) and we select the appropriate complementary interventions to target these processes.

Part 1 - Today

Can we use cancer’s disordered metabolism to our advantage?

What actually is 2-DG?

How does 2-DG work against cancer?

Part 2 - Tomorrow…. Which cancers are 2-DG effective against?

(with references to share with your medical team where necessary).

What is 2-Deoxy D-Glucose (2-DG)

Below is a diagram of a glucose molecule. A 2-DG molecule is EXACTLY the same as regular glucose (sugar) with one exception only.

The red circled OH (an alcohol) has been replaced with a little H - Hydrogen ion (H+). That’s all!!