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Adding a combination of hydroxycitrate and lipoic acid (METABLOC™) to chemotherapy improves effectiveness against tumor development: experimental results and case report

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Summary

Altered metabolism of cancer first highlighted by Otto Warburg has a long history. Although ignored for a considerable amount of time, it is now receiving substantial attention. We recently published results obtained with a combination of two drugs, lipoic acid and hydroxycitrate, targeting metabolic enzymes particularly affected in cancer: ATP citrate lyase and pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase. This treatment was as efficient as chemotherapy in the three mouse cancer models that were tested. In this work, we asked if our drug combination could be used in conjunction with standard cytotoxic chemotherapy, in particular cisplatin, to improve basic protocol efficacy. A combination of lipoic acid and hydroxycitrate was administered to mice implanted with syngeneic cancer cells, LL/2 lung carcinoma and MBT-2 bladder carcinoma, concommitantly with classical chemotherapy (cisplatin or methotrexate). We demonstrate that the triple combination lipoic acid + hydroxycitrate + cisplatin or methotrexate is more efficient than cisplatin or methotrexate used individually or the combination of lipoic acid and hydroxycitrate administered alone. Of particular note are the results obtained in the treatment of an 80 year-old female who presented with ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas accompanied by liver metastases. A treatment course using gemcitabine plus α-lipoic acid and hydroxycitrate gave highly promising results. The in vivo data, coupled with the case study results, suggest a possible advantage in using a treatment targeted at cancer metabolism in association with classical chemotherapy.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the help of Jean-Marc Steyaert. This work was funded by Biorébus.

Written consent for publication was obtained from the patient.

Competing interests

METABLOC is a trade mark of Biorébus.

AG is an employee of Biorébus. The other authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biorébus, Paris, France

    Adeline Guais, Edward Sanders & Frédéric Campion

  2. Family Medecine Area ASL 01 Legnano (Mi), Milano, Italy

    GianFranco Baronzio

  3. METABLOC Research Center, Centro Medico Kines, Castano Primo, (Mi), Milano, Italy

    GianFranco Baronzio

  4. Centro Medico Kines, Castano Primo, (Mi), Milano, Italy

    Carlo Mainini

  5. Oncology Unit, S. Giuseppe Hospital, Empoli (Florence), Italy

    Giammaria Fiorentini & Francesco Montagnani

  6. Laboratoire d’informatique, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France

    Mahsa Behzadi & Laurent Schwartz

  7. Nosco Pharmaceuticals, Paris, France

    Mohammad Abolhassani

  8. Service de Radiothérapie, AP-HP Hôpital Pitié-Salpétrière, bd. de l’Hôpital, 75013, Paris, France

    Laurent Schwartz

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  1. Adeline Guais
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  2. GianFranco Baronzio
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  3. Edward Sanders
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  4. Frédéric Campion
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  5. Carlo Mainini
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  6. Giammaria Fiorentini
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  8. Mahsa Behzadi
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  9. Laurent Schwartz
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  10. Mohammad Abolhassani
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Laurent Schwartz.

Additional information

Guais Adeline and Baronzio Gianfranco contributed equally to the article

Electronic supplementary material

Supplemental tables number 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, 3a and 3b describing the statistical results in details.

Supplementary Table 1

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Supplementary Table 2

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Supplementary Table 3

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Guais, A., Baronzio, G., Sanders, E. et al. Adding a combination of hydroxycitrate and lipoic acid (METABLOC™) to chemotherapy improves effectiveness against tumor development: experimental results and case report. Invest New Drugs 30, 200–211 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10637-010-9552-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10637-010-9552-x

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