pH Balance Links Brain Disease to Cancer, Opens New Treatment Paths
- Authors
- Salvador Harguindey, Khalid Alfarouk, Julian Polo Orozco, Stephan J. Reshkin, Jesus Devesa
- Journal
- International Journal of Molecular Sciences
- Year
- 2022
- DOI
- 10.3390/ijms23052454
- Study Type
- clinical
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- Spain
- Health Condition
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Body System
- Nervous System
TL;DR
Cancer and neurological diseases like MS might actually be opposite problems with how cells handle acid and base levels, kind of like one disease makes cells too acidic inside while the other makes them too alkaline—and fixing these chemical imbalances could be a whole new way to treat these diseases.
Key Finding
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Summary
Scientists have developed a groundbreaking theory connecting cancer and neurodegenerative diseases through pH balance. Their analysis suggests these conditions represent opposite ends of a spectrum controlled by hydrogen ion dynamics inside and outside cells. Multiple sclerosis, used as a key example, may actually be a metabolic disease before becoming autoimmune. The researchers found that pH imbalance, mitochondrial problems, and gut bacteria dysfunction all contribute to brain degeneration. This new understanding could lead to innovative treatments that focus on restoring proper acid-base balance rather than just managing symptoms, potentially revolutionizing how we treat neurological diseases.
Abstract
The pH-related metabolic paradigm has rapidly grown in cancer research and treatment. In this contribution, this recent oncological perspective has been laterally assessed for the first time in order to integrate neurodegeneration within the energetics of the cancer acid-base conceptual frame. At all levels of study (molecular, biochemical, metabolic, and clinical), the intimate nature of both processes appears to consist of opposite mechanisms occurring at the far ends of a physiopathological intracellular pH/extracellular pH (pHi/pHe) spectrum. This wide-ranging original approach now permits an increase in our understanding of these opposite processes, cancer and neurodegeneration, and, as a consequence, allows us to propose new avenues of treatment based upon the intracellular and microenvironmental hydrogen ion dynamics regulating and deregulating the biochemistry and metabolism of both cancer and neural cells. Under the same perspective, the etiopathogenesis and special characteristics of multiple sclerosis (MS) is an excellent model for the study of neurodegenerative diseases and, utilizing this pioneering approach, we find that MS appears to be a metabolic disease even before an autoimmune one. Furthermore, within this paradigm, several important aspects of MS, from mitochondrial failure to microbiota functional abnormalities, are analyzed in depth. Finally, and for the first time, a new and integrated model of treatment for MS can now be advanced.