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CLINICAL TRIAL article

Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Translational Pharmacology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1507125
This article is part of the Research Topic Nutrition as a Pharmacological Approach to Metabolic Disorders and Ageing View all 3 articles

Interplay of Serum Taurine, S-adenosylmethionine, and Cysteine Levels in Cancer Risk: A Prospective Study

Provisionally accepted
Chenan Liu Chenan Liu 1Tong Liu Tong Liu 1Yaping Wei Yaping Wei 2Jinyu Shi Jinyu Shi 1li deng li deng 1Mengmeng Song Mengmeng Song 3Hanping Shi Hanping Shi 1,2*
  • 1 Beijing Shijitan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
  • 2 Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Shanghai, China
  • 3 University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Amino acids are known to play critical roles in cancer metabolism and progression. Among them, taurine, S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), and cysteine have garnered particular attention due to their interconnected metabolic pathways. This study sought to explore the associations between serum levels of these amino acids and cancer risk within Chinese adults..A nested case-control study was conducted within the China H-Type Hypertension Registry Study cohort, comprising 1,391 cancer cases and 1,391 matched controls. Serum concentrations of taurine, SAM, and cysteine were quantified, and their associations with cancer risk were evaluated using conditional logistic regression and Bayesian Kernel Machine Regression (BKMR) models.Results: A total of 1,391 pairs of participants were included in this study. Their average age was 69.3 years ± 7.77 years, and 56% were male. Higher serum taurine levels were associated with a reduced risk of overall cancer. In contrast, elevated serum SAM levels were linked to an increased risk of digestive cancers. The BKMR model identified complex interactions among these amino acids and showed a significant overall negative association between the combined effect of taurine, SAM, and cysteine and cancer risk.Conclusions: Serum taurine levels may offer protective benefits against cancer, particularly for digestive cancers, while its metabolites do not have such significant benefits. The intricate interactions among taurine, SAM, and cysteine underscore the need for a comprehensive approach to understanding their roles in the metabolic processes that drive tumorigenesis.

    Keywords: Taurine, S-Adenosylmethionine, Cysteine, Cancer, cohort

    Received: 07 Oct 2024; Accepted: 02 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Liu, Liu, Wei, Shi, deng, Song and Shi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Hanping Shi, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Shanghai, 201318, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.