Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/wPMaVIrDLvM   Pink artificial sweetener, once wrongfully accused of triggering bladder cancer, may ironically help create new cancer chemotherapy drugs.  Data just published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry shows that saccharin prevents cancer cells from surviving in tumors’ typical low oxygen conditions.   Saccharin blocks the activity of tumor-specific carbonic anhydrase 9 while leaving unaffected the carbonic anhydrases 1 and 2 used by normal cells.  The researchers developed compounds with similar chemical structures to saccharin and found that many could kill lung, prostate, and colon cancer cells grown in tissue culture.   These new findings should make you more comfortable using the pink sweetener.  As with most foods and additives, moderation is the by-word.   Silvia Bua, Carrie Lomelino, Akilah B. Murray, Sameh M. Osman, Zeid A. ALOthman, Murat Bozdag, Hatem A. Abdel-Aziz, Wagdy M. Eldehna, Robert McKenna, Alessio Nocentini, Claudiu T. Supuran. “A Sweet Combination”: