[ron123456 (OP)]

"Malignant, rapidly growing tumor cells typically have glycolytic rates up to 200 times higher than those of their tissues of origin". To me, this is fast ATP production by lactic acid fermentation and thus suggests Nad+ is being produced at a faster rate in a cancer cell's cytosol than in the mitochondria. It also suggest that the cystosol is acting like a crimini mushroom (fungus) that boosts NAD levels.

Now to be completely honest I have read the below which is the complete opposite to what my above thinking is:

"To find out if the balance of NAD+ and NADH was critical for tumor cell behavior, the team proceeded to insert a yeast gene into cancer cells that caused a shift toward more NAD+. To the scientists" amazement, this shift caused the tumor cells to become less aggressive. To confirm and extend the initial findings, the team altered genes tied to NAD+ production. The resulting shift again showed that higher NADH levels meant more aggressive tumors, while increased NAD+ had the opposite affect. The next logical step was to find a simple way to enhance the critical NAD+ level therapeutically. So the team explored what would happen if mice with breast cancer were fed water spiked with nicotinamide, a precursor for NAD+ production. The scientists found cancer development was dramatically slowed down, and the mice lived longer.

And once again, as usual, my thoughts are completely opposite/wrong?....Please enlighten me if possible......Thx

[Bored chemist]

From time to time, people with cancer get serious fungal infections.
Those infections are treated.
If the cancer was a fungal infection then it would be cured by the antifungal drugs.
People would have noticed.

Also, we know what cancer is.

[RD]

https://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2014/03/24/dont-believe-the-hype-10-persistent-cancer-myths-debunked/#fungus

[ron123456 (OP)]

...in support for myself, just read (I missed before, my apology):

Scientific American May 2019:

"For very different reasons, NAD+ has also attracted a wave of attention from cancer researchers. Recent studies suggest that cancer cells of many types depend on NAD+ to sustain their rapid growth and that cutting off the NAD+ supply could be an effective strategy for killing certain cancers.

...elevated NAMPT levels (a major NAD+ producing enzyme in mammals) have been reported in several human cancers including colorectal, ovarian, breast and prostate cancers. In studies in animals and cells, drugs that inhibit NAMPT have shown promise in killing cancer cells or enhancing the effectiveness of other cancer therapies.

In 2016 researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that among people with glioblastoma—an aggressive form of brain cancer—tumors with higher NAMPT levels correlated with shorter survival times. When human glioblastoma cells were implanted in mice, the cells proliferated and established new tumors. But when researchers suppressed NAMPT in these cells before implantation, they later saw reduced brain-tumor formation and increased survival in the mice—suggesting that glioblastoma cells depend on NAMPT and NAD+ to thrive.

At the moment, the idea that elevating NAD+ levels could fuel cancer growth remains a hypothesis, but it is one that has attracted considerable attention.

....And different cell types are known to employ distinct metabolic programs, which could lead to tissue-specific responses to NAD+. Like the tissues from which they arise, cancers are diverse in their cellular ways—and at least some run counter to the “cancer fuel” hypothesis of NAD+.

...The need for more evidence"


I guess if not theoretically figured out, experimental will pursue?  Thx