Purdue University researcher Jerry McLaughlin, working with doctoral student Nicholas Oberlies, has found compounds in the bark of the pawpaw tree that have shown preliminary success in fighting some drug-resistant cancers.

Cells need energy to live, survive, and multiply.

During the digestion process, our food begins to be broken down and put into a form that eventually can be utilized by the cells in our body. One result of this process is the formation of blood sugar, or glucose. As blood travels throughout the body, the cells absorb the life-sustaining glucose. All cells need it, but some need more than others and are thus “high-users.”

The cell must convert glucose into usable energy; the vast majority of the metabolism (energy conversion) that takes place is through the mitochondria of the cell. The energy that is produced is called adenosine tryphosphate, or ATP for short.

Cancer cells fit the profile of “high users” of ATP. In fact, some studies indicate that they need anywhere from 10-17 times as much ATP as a normal cell in order to survive and multiply. Thus, if the ATP that is produced by the mitochondria of the cancer cells can be somehow controlled or reduced significantly, those cells can be negatively impacted, hopefully making them die off.

Acetogenins is the substance that reduce ATP.

Dr. Jerry McLaughlin has found that the paw paw tree is a source of a substance known as acetogenins. The blood supply picks them up and delivers them throughout the body along with glucose. Although a slight amount of acetogenins may wind up in non-cancer cells, the resulting lowering of ATP production is not enough in most of these cells to cause any problems.

The huge energy requirement of the cancerous cells tends to “hog” most of the acetogenins to those cells. Furthermore, when the acetogenins start working on the “high-usage” cancer cells, the resulting drop in ATP energy production is much greater than it would be in most normal cells. Thus, if cancer cells are present in the body, the paw paw tends to affect them, while leaving the normal cells alone.

Unlike chemotherapy, the paw paw works to “starve” the cancer cells instead of poisoning them. Thus, the action is usually slower than chemotherapy.

Side Effects are Minimal

The positive thing about paw paw is the lack of side effects. One thing that means is the lack of hair loss and weight loss, normally experienced with some conventional chemotherapy drugs, are non-existent. If paw paw is taken on an empty stomach, you might experience nausea and/or vomiting. On rare occasions, you might feel a temporary lowering of energy due to ATP reduction in cells throughout the body.

The acetogenin energy-inhibiting properties work in basically four ways:

• Acetogenins modulate/reduce the production of cellular energy (ATP), thus robbing the cancer cells of the energy it needs to survive.

• Acetogenins help modulate/reduce the growth of blood vessels near the cancerous cells.

• Acetogenins enhance the effectiveness of chemical medical treatments. It is common for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy to develop a resistance to the chemo treatment. This is usually called Multiple-Drug Resistance (MDR). Multi-drug resistant cancer is hard to treat because the cancer cell has developed a mechanism to get around the anti-cancer agent.

This resistance takes place because cancer cells will develop the ability to recognize and reject chemicals that it becomes familiar with. This mechanism uses ATP. Lowering ATP to these cells reduces their ability to pump out the chemotherapy drugs, thus making the cells susceptible to the chemotherapy treatments again.

• Acetogenins help reduce duplication of cancer cells. ATP is an essential part of DNA and RNA division and reproduction. The lowered levels of ATP tend to reduce rapid cell growth.

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The studies were funded by National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute, the Indiana Elks Cancer Research Fund and Purdue Research Foundation. Purdue has filed a patent on the use of the paw paw compounds.