Scoperto il legame tra la carenza di vitamina B6 e l’insorgenza di tumori maligni

Link between vitamin B6 deficiency and malignant tumours discovered

Research coordinated by Sapienza University and the Santa Lucia Foundation has shown that a lack of vitamin B6 can transform benign tumours into more aggressive forms. Understanding this phenomenon, described in an article published in Cell Death & Disease and experimentally investigated on the fruit fly, is useful for clarifying the links between micronutrient deficiency and the appearance of tumours

Vitamin B6 deficiency is related to the occurrence of malignant tumours according to new research by the Charles Darwin Department of Biology and Biotechnology and the Alessandro Rossi Fanelli Department of Biochemical Sciences of Sapienza University of Rome and the Laboratory of Cellular Neurobiology at the Santa Lucia Foundation in Rome. The study, published in the journal Cell Death & Disease, clarified the mechanisms behind this link by carrying out in vivo experiments for the first time on specimens of Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly. In particular, this research showed that vitamin B6 deficiency can transform benign tumours expressing the RasV12 oncogene (a gene linked to the formation of neoplasms) into more aggressive forms that produce metastases.

Vitamin B6 is a water-soluble compound with antioxidant properties, which makes possible the activity of enzymes involved in 4% of metabolic reactions. Therefore, within the delicate cellular balance, vitamin B6 deficiency results in, among other things, DNA damage and chromosome aberrations. Researchers demonstrated for the first time in vivo the correlation between vitamin B6 deficiency, genomic damage and oxidative stress in cancer cells.

To achieve this result, the scientists used Drosophila melanogaster. Through genetic crossbreeding, the scientists obtained Drosophila larvae that simultaneously expressed the Ras oncogene, which causes benign tumours, and a green fluorescent protein, making it easy to track tumour masses and any metastases from the primary tumour. These larvae, treated with a specific vitamin B6 inhibitor to reduce its concentration, were then examined to assess the effect of this deficiency on the tumour phenotype.

In addition to the countless advantages of using the fruit fly as an experimental model for genetic studies, the use of Drosophila as a model organism to study metabolism and its impact on cancer is extremely advantageous, as the insect possesses the majority of the metabolic pathways underlying tumours in humans. This experimental model can therefore be used in the future to study the impact of other micronutrient deficiencies on the processes of tumour formation and metastasis.

Although the condition of primary vitamin B6 deficiency in developed countries is rare since it is present in most foods, secondary deficiencies resulting from drugs, alcohol abuse or diseases such as diabetes and malabsorption syndromes are frequent. Therefore, applied to humans, these results suggest the importance of assessing genome integrity as a predictive biomarker in all those contexts where vitamin B6 is reduced. Furthermore, the impact of diet on cancer is a topic of general interest that should also be disseminated to promote prevention.