Urea dysfunctions in the liver may signal cancer
A new study, now published in the journal Cell, suggests that the
way in which the human body processes nitrogen may be key to finding new
ways of detecting and destroying cancer.
Nitrogen is a gas that is vital for all organisms. Both plants and animals need it in order to make proteins.
When our body processes nitrogen, it generates a substance called
urea as waste; the body later eliminates this substance through urine.
This metabolizing process is called the urea cycle, and it takes place in the liver.
New research suggests that dysregulations in the urea cycle could be a
marker of cancer. The new study was led by Dr. Ayelet Erez, from the
Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.
Studying urea dysregulations and tumors
Dr. Erez and colleagues altered the g...