"Hormone sex" prevents the development of cancer
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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The hormone calcitonin strongly worsens the prognosis of patients with certain types of cancer. Scientists believe that the content of calcitonin can be reduced by switching the activating enzyme to another hormone, oxytocin, which is associated with a sense of sexual pleasure and satisfaction.
Researchers from the Australian National University have received unexpected results, which can lead to a rather peculiar way of fighting cancer. The staff of the laboratory of Professor Christopher Easton studied the enzyme PAM (peptidylglycine alpha-amidating monooxygenase), which is involved in the activation of a number of peptide hormones, including calcitonin and oxytocin. The former is used in mineral metabolism, and also stimulates the fission of certain cells; the second controls lactation and musculature of the uterus. It is believed that oxytocin affects sexual behavior; sometimes it is called "sex hormone", as its content in lymph sharply increases at the time of orgasm.
In this case, the imbalance of peptide hormones, like any violation in the hormonal system, leads to various diseases, from asthma to cancer. Skewing in the concentration of a hormone can be associated with the incorrect operation of the PAM enzyme, which activates them. In an article published in the journal Medicinal Chemistry Communications, the authors report that an increased level of calcitonin strongly worsens the condition of patients with small cell lung cancer. This is one of the most widespread and dangerous types of cancer, extremely fast growing and with extensive metastases. According to the authors of the study, they managed to find out that some fatty acid derivatives effectively suppress the work of the PAM enzyme in the cells of this type of cancer.
The proposed scheme also allows to expand the search for substances that could correct the hormonal balance and reduce the level of calcitonin in the cells. Perhaps this will not become a miracle cure for cancer, but at least it will slow growth and stabilize the tumor; in the case of small cell cancer, this is already quite a lot.
The most optimal option is to consider a method that would switch the enzyme's attention to another substrate, so that it activates less calcitonin and more oxytocin (after all, complete suppression of the work of such an important enzyme will not lead to anything good). Whether it is possible to switch the enzyme PAM on its own with its own power to another substrate, the authors of the work do not discuss it.
Oncology, generally speaking, is not a very suitable subject for jokes, but anticancer therapy based on increasing the level of the "sex hormone" can be the most outstanding example of combining pleasure with useful.