Scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles have discovered a mechanism that allows cancer cells to absorb glucose, gain energy for tumor survival and growth, and correlate with increasing number of specific molecules in cells.
The researchers discovered a molecule called sodium glucose (SGLT2), a protein that is responsible for transferring glucose to ensure survival and growth, so other protein vectors such as GLUT are very important to them.
According to the site "Russia Today," a previous study showed that SGLT2 can play an important role in the development of some types of cancer, including prostate cancer and pancreas.
The researchers used positron tomography to determine the activity of different glucose vectors in cancer cells at different stages of development. Scientists found that these cells contained a large number of SGLT2, indicating that a tumor had grown up shortly before and supplied itself with carbohydrates, -Glucose, not through GLUT. In addition to this you may get an increase in the concentration of SGLT2 before the tumor appears, making it a good indicator of the detection of malignant tumors at a very early stage of their emergence.