Cancer and Glycine

Cancer Cells Need Glycine

Rapidly dividing cancer cells require the amino-acid glycine as reported by researchers from Harvard Medical School and their colleagues in the prestigious academic journal Science in 2012. Rapidly proliferating non-cancerous cells did not show this reliance, suggesting that inhibiting cells’ ability to take up or metabolize glycine may be an effective anti-cancer strategy.

The researchers grew a panel of 60 cancer cell lines, used mass spectrometry to measure the cells’ consumption and release of more than 200 metabolites, and integrated these measurements with a pre-existing atlas of gene expression.

Glycine consumption and gene expression of the mitochondrial glycine biosynthetic pathway strongly correlated with proliferation rates across cancer cells. Blocking glycine uptake and its biosynthesis in mitochondria preferentially impaired rapidly proliferating cells. Also, higher expression of this pathway was linked with mortality in patients with breast cancer.

My take: If you have cancer avoid taking any supplements with glycine and avoid eating foods high in glycine, which would be primarily animal meats.