Prostate cancer (PC), one of the most common cancers in men, is like a silent killer, with most patients experiencing slow-growing symptoms of the disease that can eventually develop into a life-threatening cancer. At that point, prostate cancer can become so intractable that all available treatment options are not responding to it.

As the saying goes, the treatment depends on "three points of medicine, seven points of maintenance", this "maintenance" most of the time refers to the food tonic. Prostate cancer is a long-term progressive disease. If appropriate intervention methods, such as reasonable lifestyle and diet, can be adopted in the early stage of the disease, it may effectively delay the progression of prostate cancer and improve the prognosis of patients.

On October 25, 2024, the team of Professor Lloyd Trotman of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory published in the top international academic journal Science entitled: Dietary pro-oxidant therapy by a vitamin K precursor targets PI 3-kinase VPS34 function Research paper.

Studies have found that a pro-oxidant supplement, menadione (vitamin K3), can slow the progression of prostate cancer. Menadione is a water-soluble precursor of vitamin K, which is commonly found in green leafy vegetables, and its physiological function is mainly to promote blood clotting and participate in bone metabolism.

Mechanism studies have shown that VPS34 is a key target of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), menadione can inhibit the activity of VPS34, reduce the production of PI3P, and increase the oxidative stress leading to the death of prostate cancer cells. In contrast, normal cells grow slowly and therefore have sufficient energy reserves to withstand this damage. In addition, the research team demonstrated that menadione also has a therapeutic effect in a fatal genetic disorder called X-linked myotubulin myopathy (XLMTM).

These findings reveal a simple but effective way to intervene in cancer and have new implications for the treatment of other genetic diseases caused by dysregulation of kinase activity.

The team treated RapidCaP mouse models with a pro-oxidant supplement, menadione sodium sulfite (MSB), a compound that is a mammalian precursor to vitamin K. They found that a daily supplement of MSB in drinking water could inhibit the progression of prostate cancer and produce a lasting inhibitory effect.

Overall, the study, published in Science, suggests that adding pro-oxidant supplements to the diet to supplement MSB can effectively delay the disease progression of prostate cancer. This is because MSB can inhibit the activity of PI3K kinase VPS34, reduce the production of PI3P, and increase oxidative stress, which leads to the death of prostate cancer cells. In addition, in X-linked myotubular myopathy (XLMTM), MSB can inhibit kinase activity of VPS34, restoring PI3P to levels that can improve muscle development.