A New Research Hyperlinks a Frequent Power Drink Ingredient to Sooner Most cancers Cell Development

Plainly power drinks are all over the place. The U.S. power drink market alone grew by 73% between 2018 to 2023 and was valued at a staggering $23.9 billion in 2024. Nonetheless, a brand new research revealed within the journal Nature offers compelling proof that, in sure circumstances, taurine, the frequent ingredient that offers these drinks their kick, could possibly be fueling extra than simply your afternoon power.

In Might, researchers from the College of Rochester revealed their findings on taurine and its position in driving the expansion of aggressive types of leukemia.

The workforce behind the research, led by researchers on the College of Rochester, found that taurine doesn’t simply get digested while you drink it or take it in dietary supplements. As a substitute, sure cells in our bones, mind, coronary heart, and muscle groups also can actively produce it (and it’s typically present in fish and meat as nicely). In people with leukemia, taurine seems to stimulate the multiplication of most cancers cells.

To grasp why, it helps to know somewhat about how blood cancers like leukemia flourish within the physique. Leukemia, the Nationwide Most cancers Institute explains, typically begins with a small variety of broken stem cells within the bone marrow, which can be the place your blood is produced. These most cancers stem cells can develop uncontrollably and hinder the physique from producing the pink and white blood cells it wants. Moreover, this new research reveals that these leukemia cells could also be nourished by the taurine your physique already produces. 

The researchers found that as leukemia progresses, sure cells in human bone marrow start producing extra taurine, because the most cancers cells take up it by a particular protein referred to as TauT, which stands for taurine transporter. This taurine can help the most cancers cells in producing power extra effectively, probably inflicting them to develop at an accelerated charge.

Nonetheless, in mouse fashions, when the researchers blocked both the manufacturing of taurine within the bone or the most cancers cells’ potential to soak up it, the expansion of leukemia slowed. The mice with leukemia lived longer, and their most cancers unfold much less shortly, indicating a possible new pathway for treating this illness.

“We’re very enthusiastic about these research as a result of they display that concentrating on uptake by myeloid leukemia cells could also be a doable new avenue for remedy of those aggressive illnesses,” Jeevisha Bajaj, an assistant professor within the Division of Biomedical Genetics on the College of Rochester, and lead writer of the research, shared. 

It is important to grasp that this research doesn’t state or indicate that power drinks and dietary supplements will trigger most cancers in any manner. Nonetheless, it discovered that when the mice with leukemia got extra taurine, just like what you’d eat in power drinks, the most cancers progressed considerably sooner.

It is also necessary to do not forget that taurine has been proven in early-stage research to be probably useful for individuals present process chemotherapy, because it might assist mitigate unwanted side effects like nausea. Moreover, different research have additionally proven that taurine couldmight have the potential to fight gastric cancers within the abdomen.

Nonetheless, the authors concluded, “Since taurine is a standard ingredient in power drinks and is commonly supplied as a complement to mitigate the unwanted side effects of chemotherapy, our work means that it could be of curiosity to rigorously take into account the advantages of supplemental taurine in leukemia sufferers.”