Cancer treatment breakthrough: DGLA fatty acid can kill malignant cells

In a major breakthrough, scientists have discovered that a fatty acid called dihomogamma-linolenic acid, or DGLA, can kill human cancer cells.

Cancer is today one of the leading causes of death across the world. Scientists have been consistently trying to find newer and better methods to kill cancer cells and develop a treatment procedure that can help cure this disease. Much progress has been made over the years in this field. Now, in a major study at the Washington State University in the US, the researchers have showed that a fatty acid called dihomogamma-linolenic acid, or DGLA, can kill human cancer cells. The study, published in Developmental Cell, found that DGLA can induce ferroptosis in an animal model and in actual human cancer cells. Ferroptosis is an iron-dependent type of cell death that was discovered in recent years and has become a focal point for disease research as it is closely related to many diseases processes.

Programmed cell death

Ferroptosis is basically programmed cell death. This is a new procedure and it plays an important regulatory role in the development of many diseases including tumors, neurological ailments. Activating or blocking the ferroptosis pathway can block the progression of the disease. This provides a promising therapeutic strategy for many diseases.

Inducing ferroptosis to cause tumour cell death

According to researchers, if you could deliver DGLA precisely to a cancer cell, it could promote ferroptosis and lead to tumour cell death. Also, just knowing that this fat promotes ferroptosis might also affect how experts think about conditions such as kidney disease and neurodegeneration where they want to prevent this type of cell death.

The research team revealed that DGLA is a polyunsaturated fatty acid found in small amounts in the human body, though rarely in the human diet. Compared to other fatty acids, such as those found in fish oil, DGLA is relatively understudied. Watts has been researching dietary fats including DGLA for nearly twenty years, using the nematode 'Caenorhabditis elegans' as an animal model.

Importance of DGLA in ferroptosis

A microscopic worm, C. elegans is often used in molecular research because it is transparent and allows scientists to easily study cell-level activity in a whole animal over its relatively short lifespan. Results found in the C. elegans cells are also often transferable to human cells. The research team discovered that feeding nematodes a diet of DGLA-laden bacteria killed all the germ cells in the worms as well as the stem cells that make the germ cells. The way the cells died carried many signs of ferroptosis.

To see if the results would translate to human cells, researchers collaborated with experts at Stanford University, who have been studying ferroptosis and its potential for battling cancer for many years. Taking what they had learned from the nematode work, the researchers showed that DGLA could induce ferroptosis in human cancer cells. They also found interaction with another fatty acid class, called an ether lipid, that had a protective effect against DGLA. When they took out the ether lipids, the cells died faster in the presence of DGLA.

(With inputs from IANS)