Studying the impact of Ketone Ester HVMN on PANC-1 in vitro

Abstract: Cancer is considered to be one of the top deadly diseases, characterized by uncontrolled dividing of cells and reprogrammed metabolism. Cancer cells usually use high amounts of glucose, so they can produce the required energy for survival and proliferation, this process is called aerobic glycolysis. Studies have shown the inability of cancer using ketone bodies as fuel to generate ATP, therefore using ketone supplements could be an advantage in the fight of cancer. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the effect of ketone ester HVMN treatment, and investigate possible mechanism of its efficacy. Several methods were implemented, cell viability assay, glycolysis assay, apoptosis assay, and gene expression of several genes. This study showed a decrease in cell viability - when treating PANC-1 with different concentrations of the HVMN ketone ester, a significant decrease was recorded in the treatment concentrations of 5 and 50 mM after 24- and 48-hours. The lactate production was generally high for all concentrations of HVMN ketone ester as well as an increased apoptosis for all concentrations but only significant for treatment concentration of 1mM. The results also showed a significant increase in the expression levels of TFAM and cytochrome c (mt-CO1) indicating a functional mitochondrion. Increase mitochondrial activity suggest that ketogenic treatment HVMN induces a metabolic shift in cancer cells leading to the inhibition of glycolysis pathway, decreasing cell viability and inducing apoptosis.