A sugar that feeds most cells can starve a liver tumour, Hong Kong researchers find

Fructose — the sugar in fruit — is usually treated with suspicion in cancer research. A team at City University of Hong Kong, led by Professor Yin Huiyong, has found a context where it does the opposite. In liver cancer cells, a breakdown product of fructose called fructose-1-phosphate jams a key enzyme the tumour needs, and that jam slows the cancer's growth. The reason it works is a quirk of the disease itself: as liver tumours progress, they lose the ability to fully break fructose down, so the intermediate piles up and turns against them. The findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, open a new therapeutic avenue — a way of attacking liver cancer through its own altered metabolism. It is early, laboratory-stage work, but it reframes a familiar nutrient as a potential weapon.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation