Mukherjee · Communications biology 2019 · Preclinical animal study · n=?

Therapeutic benefit of combining calorie-restricted ketogenic diet and glutamine targeting in late-stage experimental glioblastoma.

Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data

Preclinical animal model study (mouse models).

PubMed 31149644 · doi:10.1038/s42003-019-0455-x · record verified 2026-08-26

What was done

Researchers evaluated the therapeutic efficacy of combining the glutamine antagonist 6-diazo-5-oxo-L-norleucine (DON) with a calorically restricted ketogenic diet (KD-R) in two syngeneic orthotopic mouse models of late-stage glioblastoma (VM-M3 and CT-2A).

What was found

The abstract provides no numerical data, hazard ratios, or survival durations. It qualitatively reports that the combination of DON and KD-R killed tumor cells, reversed disease symptoms, improved overall mouse survival, reduced edema, hemorrhage, and inflammation, and facilitated brain delivery of DON allowing lower dosage.

Why it matters

The study provides preclinical proof-of-concept that concurrently targeting glucose and glutamine metabolism may suppress aggressive glioblastoma growth and improve central nervous system drug delivery.

Limits

Findings are limited to animal models and provide no human clinical evidence. The abstract reports no sample sizes, effect sizes, survival metrics, drug dosages, or statistical measures.

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