Cancer treatment including glycolytic inhibitors

Abstract

Glycolytic inhibitors are useful in the treatment of solid tumors by attacking anaerobic cells at the center on the tumor. 2-deoxyglucose, oxamate and various analogs thereof are identified as having a natural selective toxicity toward anaerobic cells, and will significantly increase the efficacy of standard cancer chemotherapeutic and radiation regiments as well as new protocols emerging with anti-angiogenic agents.

Description

FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates, in general, to compositions and methods aimed at effectively treating anaerobic tumor cells with inhibitors of glycolysis. It also extends to novel and useful methods and compositions for treating aerobic tumor cells with inhibitors of oxidative phosphorylation in combination with glycolytic inhibitors. Inhibiting oxidative phosphorylation to convert aerobic tumor cells to anaerobic cells, hypersensitizes them to glycolytic inhibitors. U.S. patents that are relevant to the compositions and methods of the present invention are: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,840,939 and 4,684,627, both for a treatment of cancer with phlorizin and its derivatives; U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,222 for N-glycosylated carboxamide derivatives and their use for influencing the body's inherent defenses; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,420,489 for sugars with sulfur replacing the ring oxygen atom as antiradiation agents. U.S. Pat. No. 4,840,939 is also relevant for its dis...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

Although Warburg originally proposed that tumor cells depend less on mitochondrial function for ATP production and more on glycolysis than normal cells, there has been no definitive data to date to confirm this hypothesis. There is data however which indicates that cells, tumor or normal, which are compromised aerobically and switch to anaerobic metabolism increase their uptake and utilization of glucose. The increased uptake has been attributed to the increased appearance of glucose receptors on the plasma membrane. The fact that cells growing at the inner core of tumors rely more on glycolysis than cells on the outer edge most likely accounts for the successful use of the radioactive analog of glucose, 2-deoxyglucose (2-dg), as a diagnostic tool for localizing tumors. This has been the main usage of 2-dg for cancer. Moreover, it has been suggested that 2-dg is taken up more by anaerobic cells due to enhanced expression of glucose receptors. Thus, since a cell that is functioning normally relies mainly on oxidative phosphorylation for its supply of ATP when this mechanism is compromised or absent, glycolysis (the only other way of producing ATP) automatically becomes enhanced. This is precisely why inner core tumor cells should naturally become hypersensitive to agents which block g

Problems solved by technology

Although Warburg originally proposed that tumor cells depend less on mitochondrial function for ATP production

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