[HN Gopher] Dysregulated oxalate metabolism is a therapeutic tar...
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       Dysregulated oxalate metabolism is a therapeutic target in
       atherosclerosis
        
       Author : voisin
       Score  : 62 points
       Date   : 2021-08-01 13:12 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.cell.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.cell.com)
        
       | gardenfelder wrote:
       | In their extreme, oxalates can lead to oxalate nephropathy, a
       | major affliction if kidneys. That can happen when Oxalobacter
       | fermigenes is depleted in microbiome.
        
       | nimish wrote:
       | A cousin of the Warburg effect?
        
         | garganzol wrote:
         | Dysregulated oxalate metabolism is claimed to be just a
         | dysfunctional metabolic pathway that leads to excess of
         | oxalates.
         | 
         | Warburg effect is a bit different. While the author Otto
         | Warburg believed that cancer cells _preferred_ anaerobic
         | (oxygen-less) glycolysis pathway, the modern view on this topic
         | has evolved. Now we tend to believe that cancer cells maximize
         | and exhaust all energy sources available to them. This includes
         | a normal aerobic pathway. Once the mitochondria is stressed out
         | and broken, it no longer is able to support the adequate levels
         | of aerobic glycolysis. The host cell begins to starve in ATP
         | and this is where the anaerobic pathway kicks in. So it is not
         | that a cell has a specific preference; it is just a matter of
         | survival and chemical auto-regulation.
         | 
         | So no, Warburg effect is not really a cousin as far as I can
         | see.
        
       | wpasc wrote:
       | Can anyone in the medical/nutrition/research field talk about the
       | practicality of this finding (if any) on how people should
       | moderate oxalate in their diet? Some of the healthiest foods have
       | high oxalate levels, but I was under the impression it was one of
       | those dietary fat != blood/bodily fat type things. Or how
       | oxidants actually can help (in the right levels) by assisting in
       | killing off errant and cancerous cells (which is why extreme over
       | consumption of anti oxidants can hurt you)
        
         | chillingeffect wrote:
         | From my understanding, the main issue is impaired synthesis of
         | glycine due to impaired/suppressed? genes. if you have that,
         | you'd have to dramatically reduce oxalates to the point where
         | it causes other problems. smarter to supplement glycine.
        
           | garganzol wrote:
           | > supplement glycine
           | 
           | From the looks of it, the increased consumption of glycine
           | supplements won't affect oxalate. Yes, glycine/oxalate ratio
           | would be improved, but this would not decrease the amounts of
           | oxalate. So the associated problems related to the excess of
           | oxalate would persist.
        
         | eigenrick wrote:
         | Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but, Oxalates aren't
         | particularly high in the Western Diet.
         | 
         | Cruciferous vegetables seem more a feature of the Mediterranean
         | diet or standard diet?
         | 
         | So I am assuming that the WD is lower in the necessary
         | precursors for glycine production.
         | 
         | Also, I'm assuming that glycine ingested directly would just be
         | metabolized before being used in the liver.
         | 
         | So the best actionable advice I can come up with is probably:
         | "Eat more collagen"
        
           | stevespang wrote:
           | All nuts contain high levels of oxalates, an anti-nutrient.
        
         | jz_ wrote:
         | > one of those dietary fat != blood/bodily fat type things.
         | 
         | What is meant by that though? Radio-labelling experiments do
         | show that some dietary fat ends up as stored in fat cells.
         | 
         | https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2362....
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopic_labeling
        
         | DiabloD3 wrote:
         | I study medical and nutritional research for fun. Papers like
         | these are always interesting to me.
         | 
         | Oxalates are a mixed bag, and are considered an "anti-
         | nutrient", by binding nutrients and preventing absorption
         | during digestion. Ex: Spinach has loads of calcium, but raw, is
         | a poor source of calcium due to oxalate content. However,
         | cooking foods with oxalates in them breaks down the oxalates
         | and frees up the nutrients and partially prevents the anti-
         | nutrient effect.
         | 
         | Excessively high Vitamin C diets (don't supplement to
         | ridiculous amounts, some people do), possibly in combination
         | with low calcium diets (calcium in the body is used to flush
         | oxalates out), can lead to increased risk of kidney stones in
         | diets with high oxalate content. Having a genetic mutation that
         | leads to increased risk of kidney stones can add to this.
         | Please note, there is a lot of ifs in that statement I just
         | said, each one of them independently increases risk, but
         | generally do not reach problematic levels unless you do (or
         | have) more than one.
         | 
         | You shouldn't really worry about oxalates, just don't consume
         | oxalate containing foods in absurd amounts, unless you already
         | are at risk of forming the kind of kidney stones effected by
         | oxalates, then you probably should switch to a low oxalate
         | diet. As usual, talk to your doctor if you think you might be
         | at risk.
        
           | qwt wrote:
           | > However, cooking foods with oxalates in them breaks down
           | the oxalates and frees up the nutrients and partially
           | prevents the anti-nutrient effect.
           | 
           | This advice should be taken very carefully. The amount of
           | oxalate removed is highly dependent on the cooking method and
           | the food in question. Furthermore, some foods like spinach
           | remain very high in oxalates in comparison to other foods
           | even after preparation. Finally, cooking is not effective at
           | reducing insoluble oxalates. It's probable that insoluble
           | oxalates are less problematic, but I don't know of any good
           | data showing they are harmless.
        
           | newbamboo wrote:
           | Drinking iced (black) tea is potentially deadly in quantities
           | that some southerners might not see as absurd. https://health
           | care.utah.edu/healthfeed/postings/2015/04/0423...
        
         | kurthr wrote:
         | For people with a predisposition to kidney stone this is
         | already recommended (along with an increase in calcium intake).
         | 
         | https://kidneystones.uchicago.edu/how-to-eat-a-low-oxalate-d...
        
         | aenis wrote:
         | I'd assume this article hints at the potential of using mRNA to
         | treat arteriosclerosis.
         | 
         | I'd be interesting to learn how fasting affects the expression
         | of said gene. Thats the easiest intervention anyone can take.
         | (FWIW, I've been treated with a 12 day supervised waterfasting
         | therapy for NAFLD and it reduced the volume of my liver by
         | nearly 20%).
        
         | Gatsky wrote:
         | Well the only human data is in figure 1, and it doesn't look
         | that convincing. There seems to be a small difference in
         | oxalate metabolism between people with/without coronary
         | disease. They do a bunch of comparisons which aren't corrected
         | for multiple testing, and then claim it is of some relevance
         | which is the 'most significant' based on the lowest p.value.
         | This is poor statistical practice if you ask me, such language
         | should not be permitted in an academic paper, although this is
         | utterly typical of nutritional science and life sciences in
         | general. In any case, I think it is crazy to test the
         | association between some nutritional/metabolic factor and a
         | disease outcome in just 48 humans, the results are almost
         | certainly bunk.
         | 
         | The translation is that in actual humans, oxalate metabolism
         | possibly isn't that important to cardiovascular outcomes on
         | average. But it is probably important for some people.
        
       | newbamboo wrote:
       | This comes as very worrisome news as a heavy peanut consumer.
        
       | The_rationalist wrote:
       | I expect BPC-157 to be effective for this condition too
       | https://sci-hub.mksa.top/10.2174/13816128113199990421
        
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       (page generated 2021-08-01 23:01 UTC)