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One of the hallmarks of cancer cells is their ability to evade apoptosis, or programmed cell death, through changes in protein expression. Inducing apoptosis in cancer cells has become a major focus of novel cancer therapies, as these approaches may be less toxic to healthy tissue than conventional chemotherapy or radiation. Many chemical agents are currently being tested for their ability to trigger apoptosis, and researchers are increasingly exploring light-activated molecules that can be precisely targeted to tumor sites using lasers, sparing surrounding healthy tissue.
Cancer cells have mitochondria that supply energy for rapid growth and division, but an overly alkaline environment is thought to disrupt mitochondrial function, leading to apoptosis.
A microbial protein called Archaerhodopsin-3 (AR3) may hold the key to alkalinity-induced apoptosis. When exposed to green light, AR3 pumps hydrogen ions out of the cell, increasing alkalinity, disrupting cellular functions, and eventually inducing apoptosis. The ability of AR3 to induce apoptosis in cancer-specific cell lines was described in a recent paper by Professor Yuki Sudo, Dr. Keiichi Kojima, Dr. Shin Nakao, and their team from the Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Okayama University, Japan. Their findings were published online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society[New window] on November 4, 2025.
There are some biomarkers that inhibit apoptosis e
Such as high levels of sgk1. People who've had childhood trauma tend to chronically have high levels of sgk1.
Do you know if there's reason to believe this gets around inhibited apoptosis?
In the hippocampus where childhood trauma appears to drive elevated SGK1, it appears to impair neurogenesis and promote depressive behaviors rather than simply preventing neuronal apoptosis. When SGK1 was knocked down in mice, it preserved neurogenesis and promoted resilience to stress. So while SGK1 does have anti-apoptotic properties in certain cellular contexts, the elevated SGK1 from childhood trauma doesn't appear to be primarily about blocking apoptosis in neurons - it's more about disrupting normal hippocampal function and stress response pathways.
But if i understand the literature. Sgk1 is elevated in more than just the brain in childhood trauma victims the blood and presumably vital organs also have elevated sgk1. So wouldn't it be inhibiting apoptosis in other organs?
So far out from my molbio degree but this sounds awesome and I can't be more excited to see the results and advancement in this research in 6-12 months. This sounds awesome.
Ok but do they need to shine the light directly on the cancer cells for this to work? I'm imagining even with a small probe that the amount of poking holes in someone to achieve this will do a fair bit of damage in and of itself.
Wait so green light… light the same as green light you’d see filtered through leaves if you spend time under the sun outdoors in a forested tree dense area?
Cool mechanism, but this is very much “enabling tech” stage, not a therapy. Green light barely penetrates tissue, so you’re basically limited to superficial or very well‑targeted tumors, and mouse xenografts are way simpler than heterogeneous human cancers. Interesting tool to study apoptosis though.
Not to mention the potential immunogenicity by making cells express a foreign protein. There are other alternatives towards inducing cancer cell apoptosis which includes gene therapy and chemotherapy (venetoclax).
Depends on the cancer and how it has progressed. Suppression of cell death is actually one of the primary symptoms a cell must have to be classified as a cancer.
Generally it prevents cell death by disturbing apoptotic signals, either by suppressing signalling chains that promote apoptosis or by increasing their own anti-apoptotic signalling chains.
How much have scfa’s been studied for their role in triggering apoptosis? Our consumption of fiber as a metabolite (post fermentation) has always fascinated me
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I’ve linked to the press release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.5c13053
From the linked article:
One of the hallmarks of cancer cells is their ability to evade apoptosis, or programmed cell death, through changes in protein expression. Inducing apoptosis in cancer cells has become a major focus of novel cancer therapies, as these approaches may be less toxic to healthy tissue than conventional chemotherapy or radiation. Many chemical agents are currently being tested for their ability to trigger apoptosis, and researchers are increasingly exploring light-activated molecules that can be precisely targeted to tumor sites using lasers, sparing surrounding healthy tissue.
Cancer cells have mitochondria that supply energy for rapid growth and division, but an overly alkaline environment is thought to disrupt mitochondrial function, leading to apoptosis.
A microbial protein called Archaerhodopsin-3 (AR3) may hold the key to alkalinity-induced apoptosis. When exposed to green light, AR3 pumps hydrogen ions out of the cell, increasing alkalinity, disrupting cellular functions, and eventually inducing apoptosis. The ability of AR3 to induce apoptosis in cancer-specific cell lines was described in a recent paper by Professor Yuki Sudo, Dr. Keiichi Kojima, Dr. Shin Nakao, and their team from the Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Okayama University, Japan. Their findings were published online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society[New window] on November 4, 2025.
This is super interesting, thx for posting
There are some biomarkers that inhibit apoptosis e Such as high levels of sgk1. People who've had childhood trauma tend to chronically have high levels of sgk1.
Do you know if there's reason to believe this gets around inhibited apoptosis?
In the hippocampus where childhood trauma appears to drive elevated SGK1, it appears to impair neurogenesis and promote depressive behaviors rather than simply preventing neuronal apoptosis. When SGK1 was knocked down in mice, it preserved neurogenesis and promoted resilience to stress. So while SGK1 does have anti-apoptotic properties in certain cellular contexts, the elevated SGK1 from childhood trauma doesn't appear to be primarily about blocking apoptosis in neurons - it's more about disrupting normal hippocampal function and stress response pathways.
But if i understand the literature. Sgk1 is elevated in more than just the brain in childhood trauma victims the blood and presumably vital organs also have elevated sgk1. So wouldn't it be inhibiting apoptosis in other organs?
That is so incredibly upsetting. I probably have reasonably high levels of SGK1.
So far out from my molbio degree but this sounds awesome and I can't be more excited to see the results and advancement in this research in 6-12 months. This sounds awesome.
So basically the best way to get rid of cancer is to tell it to "kys"
Internet trolls had the secret all along.
did this guy get fully permanently suspended for this comment????
That’s crazy
Ok but do they need to shine the light directly on the cancer cells for this to work? I'm imagining even with a small probe that the amount of poking holes in someone to achieve this will do a fair bit of damage in and of itself.
I you can get the light to the cancer cells you can just remove them. The problem is that we don’t know where all the cells are.
I can see it as a good thing to use when removing a tumour to make sure any stray cells missed are picked up.
I'd still take it over radiotherapy or chemotherapy tbh.
This is an in vitro study. You know what else kills cancer cells in vitro? Salt. Soap. An oven.
Interesting to a few microbiology majors, but nowhere near therapy adjacent.
Wait so green light… light the same as green light you’d see filtered through leaves if you spend time under the sun outdoors in a forested tree dense area?
That's what I was wondering. Also, who figured out that it was green light specifically?
The rhodopsin protein they are using is activated by green light. This was known before they used it to kill cancer cells.
That is so cool! :D
Cool mechanism, but this is very much “enabling tech” stage, not a therapy. Green light barely penetrates tissue, so you’re basically limited to superficial or very well‑targeted tumors, and mouse xenografts are way simpler than heterogeneous human cancers. Interesting tool to study apoptosis though.
Not to mention the potential immunogenicity by making cells express a foreign protein. There are other alternatives towards inducing cancer cell apoptosis which includes gene therapy and chemotherapy (venetoclax).
Yeah exactly, once you introduce a foreign protein you’ve basically added vaccine‑like complexity on top of existing options.
The death of death is cancer, but cell death may be resurrected so we can live! Great news.
And I read today that the sun is most brightest in yellow and green light
That is very interesting which step of apoptosis specifically does cancer evade?
Depends on the cancer and how it has progressed. Suppression of cell death is actually one of the primary symptoms a cell must have to be classified as a cancer.
Generally it prevents cell death by disturbing apoptotic signals, either by suppressing signalling chains that promote apoptosis or by increasing their own anti-apoptotic signalling chains.
How much have scfa’s been studied for their role in triggering apoptosis? Our consumption of fiber as a metabolite (post fermentation) has always fascinated me
reminds me of how people with poor, cancerous like, personality traits can be 'helped' grow by finding effective ways of 'killing' their mental state.