A few years ago I wrote an article on cachexia, the muscle-wasting co-morbidity that is common in 30% of cancer patients. The article continues to get a lot of hits, so I thought I would do an update with some recent findings.
Although cachexia is a relatively common condition, it is understudied because of a lack of research funding. Cachexia can weaken diaphragm and heart muscles thereby accelerating a patient’s demise. However, a recent article in Nature Medicine indicated that the gene ZIP14 (SLC29A14) may hold the key to helping reduce the effects of cachexia and extending the life of cancer patients. ZIP14 is overexpressed in cachectic patients, and resulted in an excess of zinc in muscle tissues. They were able to successfully inhibit ZIP14.
One thing I would like to clarify. While searching for an image for this article I came across some scurrilous web pages that tried to state that the reason that Patrick Swayze, Steve Jobs and others looked so gaunt was due to chemotherapy. This is absolutely FALSE. Their appearance is due in large part to the effects of cachexia and has nothing to do with chemo or other treatments.
Please donate to organisations like Stand Up 2 Cancer and the Lustgarten Foundation and help make a difference in the lives of cancer patients.
References
- Gang Wang, Anup K. Biswas, Wanchao Ma, Manoj Kandpal, Courtney Coker, Paul M. Grandgenett, Michael A. Hollingsworth, Rinku Jain, Kurenai Tanji, Sara Lόpez-Pintado, Alain Borczuk, Doreen Hebert, Supak Jenkitkasemwong, Shintaro Hojyo, Ramana V. Davuluri, Mitchell D. Knutson, Toshiyuki Fukada, Swarnali Acharyya. Metastatic cancers promote cachexia through ZIP14 upregulation in skeletal muscle. Nature Medicine, 2018; 24 (6): 770 DOI: 10.1038/s41591-018-0054-2