I wouldn't draw any medical conclusions from that paper, it's really not looking at anything like that. And the title of this article does not represent the paper at all.
They did some experiments to find pathways in the cells that play a role in leukemia. And they found that taurine receptors appear to be important in some way. So this is an interesting starting point, but not anything like what is suggested in the title.
If I understand the paper right, "the cells feed on taurine" is also just wrong. What they see is that taurine plays a role in regulating glycolysis in those leukemia cells. And of course glycolysis uses glucose as indicated by its name, and taurine looks nothing like glucose.
mmooss · 8h ago
The researchers themselves seem to disagree with your comment:
Researchers from the University of Rochester warned consumers to be cautious, especially as taurine is commonly used in energy drinks and dietary supplements.
... "The study states, “Since taurine is a common ingredient in energy drinks... our work suggests that it may be of interest to carefully consider the risks and benefits of supplemental taurine in leukaemia patients,”.
No comments yet
Legend2440 · 8h ago
>The research team discovered that leukaemia cells feed on taurine through a process called glycolysis, in which cells break down sugar to produce energy.
>This process helps cancer cells multiply more rapidly, worsening the disease.
If I’m reading this right, it doesn’t cause cancer, but if you already have cancer it may make it spread faster.
Qem · 8h ago
IIRC folate also share this property. It helps where tissues have fast growth or replenishment rates (infants still developing in utero, lifelong hair growth, digestive system lining, skin, et cetera), but as a side effect, when cancer happens, it supercharges tumors. Situations like this are probably one contributor for life extension being a difficult problem. When you try to apply a given fix you end increasing the risk of something else in the body breaking.
GauntletWizard · 8h ago
But these cancers are naturally occurring, happen all the time, and are usually caught by the immune system before they become large and problematic. Adding a bunch of fuel means it's far far more likely that they are growing too big too fast. It may or may not cause cancer, but it causes cancer to be a problem more often.
hackernewds · 8h ago
The outcome is the same.
borski · 7h ago
Not if you don’t have cancer.
ramoz · 8h ago
For leukaemia. Another study is investigating the development of colon cancer.
Legend2440 · 8h ago
And that study isn’t done yet. So we don’t know if it’s linked to colon cancer or not.
The theory is that the taurine added to the drinks is feeding gut bacteria that then produce hydrogen sulfide that damages the intestinal lining.
washadjeffmad · 8h ago
There was a pop-sci article around a decade ago, still within the "fight free radicals by buying our anti-oxidant products" craze, that posited that breathing flatulence could also help fight cancer because hydrogen sulfide damaged cancer cells.
Most sulfides are insoluble. I wonder if ingestion with calcium/magnesium/iron rich foods may mitigate the risk, by precipitating the sulfide formed, instead of letting it stay as fast diffusing H2S.
piuantiderp · 8h ago
Not all gut bacteria cause this, but the bad ones sure, will break sulfur-aminos into badness.
ivewonyoung · 7h ago
> hydrogen sulfide
Interesting because NAC also has been studied to possibly accelerate cancer growth if you already have it, but it helps with prevention if you don't have it. And it has sulfur and also produces hydrogen sulfide in the body.
j45 · 7h ago
It also raises a question for me could Taurine in an energy drink be different than taurine as a supplement?
monster_truck · 8h ago
I am once again begging hn for an "in mice" rule when posting studies
dynm · 8h ago
From the title, I read this expecting another lame observational study which I would probably distrust on the basis that it doesn't show anything causal. It's not that! Rather, if I understand it, they (1) took mice and introduced leukemia cells and (2) took human leukemia cell lines. In both cases, they found biomarkers related to leukemia growth.
(I welcome corrections to that understanding from experts!)
Personally, this seems far from convincing evidence that taurine in energy drinks is actually causing cancer. But it is suggestive and it seems like one might reasonably avoid taurine out of an "abundance of caution".
klipt · 8h ago
But does it show taurine is specifically worse than other amino acids?
Otherwise it's just showing that cancer can feed on protein which is ... unsurprising?
Might as well say "tofu causes cancer" or "meat causes cancer" or "milk causes cancer"
narrator · 8h ago
The inverse of this study, in which a nutrient that helps cells grow, including cancer cells, is the cause of cancer is that every substance they find that kills cells, but is slightly more likely to kill cancer cells than regular cells is suddenly the cure for cancer.
BobbyJo · 6h ago
"Aiding protein synthesis causes cancer"
haffi112 · 8h ago
Taurine deficiency has been claimed to be a driver of aging [1]. The claim from the news article about it possibly being related to cancer seems like it needs a much stronger justification.
How are those two things related? Both can be true, neither can be true, either can be true - there is no relationship.
jeffbee · 8h ago
The paper (an extremely difficult one to comprehend, reminding us how complex this field of research has become) only glancingly mentions energy drinks because apparently they are sometimes used to offset the effects of chemotherapy. That is, the context in which they are mentioned is people who already have leukemia. The entire rest of the paper is about how taurine produced by the body's own cells contributes to the advancement of the established disease.
ck2 · 8h ago
Don't completely discard the danger but keep in mind ANY supplement that improves cell efficiency also helps cancer, with very rare exception.
1000x times more worried about micro-plastics and forever-chemicals now saturating every water source on the planet, that cannot possibly end well for cancer rates and other diseases.
klipt · 6h ago
Yeah PFAS are our generation's equivalent of the lead water pipes Romans used
BenFranklin100 · 8h ago
Important point: The biomedical research that made this sort of study possible where it wasn’t before is under attack by RFK and DOGE. The study used scRNA-seq, CRISPR, and leukemia enriched stem cells to help identify a potential causal pathway. All these technologies were developed with NIH funding. The detailed, quantifiable research shown in this study relied on these technologies and is superior to epidemiology studies that would only show a vague association between energy drink consumption and higher cancer rates.
Trump/RFK has proposed slashing the NIH budget by 40%. Further, DOGE and Trump political appointees are deeply embedded within the NIH and are preventing research grants Notice of Award (NoAs) from going out. This will have disastrous consequences for biomedical research.
They did some experiments to find pathways in the cells that play a role in leukemia. And they found that taurine receptors appear to be important in some way. So this is an interesting starting point, but not anything like what is suggested in the title.
If I understand the paper right, "the cells feed on taurine" is also just wrong. What they see is that taurine plays a role in regulating glycolysis in those leukemia cells. And of course glycolysis uses glucose as indicated by its name, and taurine looks nothing like glucose.
Researchers from the University of Rochester warned consumers to be cautious, especially as taurine is commonly used in energy drinks and dietary supplements.
... "The study states, “Since taurine is a common ingredient in energy drinks... our work suggests that it may be of interest to carefully consider the risks and benefits of supplemental taurine in leukaemia patients,”.
No comments yet
>This process helps cancer cells multiply more rapidly, worsening the disease.
If I’m reading this right, it doesn’t cause cancer, but if you already have cancer it may make it spread faster.
2/10 headline at best.
The theory is that the taurine added to the drinks is feeding gut bacteria that then produce hydrogen sulfide that damages the intestinal lining.
I didn't think it passed the smell then, either.
Found it: https://www.cnet.com/science/how-smelling-farts-could-save-y...
Interesting because NAC also has been studied to possibly accelerate cancer growth if you already have it, but it helps with prevention if you don't have it. And it has sulfur and also produces hydrogen sulfide in the body.
(I welcome corrections to that understanding from experts!)
Personally, this seems far from convincing evidence that taurine in energy drinks is actually causing cancer. But it is suggestive and it seems like one might reasonably avoid taurine out of an "abundance of caution".
Otherwise it's just showing that cancer can feed on protein which is ... unsurprising?
Might as well say "tofu causes cancer" or "meat causes cancer" or "milk causes cancer"
[1] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn9257
1000x times more worried about micro-plastics and forever-chemicals now saturating every water source on the planet, that cannot possibly end well for cancer rates and other diseases.
Trump/RFK has proposed slashing the NIH budget by 40%. Further, DOGE and Trump political appointees are deeply embedded within the NIH and are preventing research grants Notice of Award (NoAs) from going out. This will have disastrous consequences for biomedical research.