{"id":54688,"date":"2026-02-09T08:00:57","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T07:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fgu.cas.cz\/?p=54688"},"modified":"2026-02-09T08:45:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T07:45:16","slug":"press-release-weight-loss-in-cancer-organs-respond-to-disease-in-a-coordinated-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fgu.cas.cz\/en\/2026\/02\/press-release-weight-loss-in-cancer-organs-respond-to-disease-in-a-coordinated-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Press release: WEIGHT LOSS IN CANCER: ORGANS RESPOND TO DISEASE IN A COORDINATED WAY"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cachexia causes uncontrolled weight loss and muscle wasting in chronic diseases and cancer. A new study, conducted in collaboration between IPHYS and the Helmholtz Munich research centre, provides the first evidence for new therapeutic strategies. The researchers uncovered specific metabolic changes typical of cancer-associated weight loss\u2014showing that several organs respond to tumour presence in a similar way, ultimately contributing to muscle mass loss.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cachexia is a metabolic disorder that affects 50\u201380% of all cancer patients. It leads to a loss of about 10% of body weight within six months, reduces quality of life, decreases the effectiveness of cancer therapies, and increases mortality.<\/p>\n

Cancer cachexia: More than just muscle loss<\/h3>\n

Cachexia (from Greek\u00a0kak\u00f3s<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 \u201cbad\u201d and\u00a0h\u00e9xis<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 \u201ccondition\u201d) develops through a combination of reduced food intake and profound metabolic alterations, yet it often remains underdiagnosed. Previous studies have mainly focused on changes in muscles\u2014the most visibly affected tissues\u2014since muscle loss can deprive patients of the ability to perform basic daily activities independently. The current study, however, explores metabolic changes across the entire organism.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, it has been unclear how metabolic responses from different organs interact to drive cancer-associated weight loss,\u201d explains Ond\u0159ej Kuda<\/a>, co-author of the study and head of the Laboratory of Metabolism of Bioactive Lipids<\/a> at IPHYS. The researchers therefore investigated the interplay between glucose and lipid metabolism to identify new therapeutic targets for cachexia. \u201cBy analyzing multiple organs simultaneously, we aimed to better understand the underlying mechanisms of body weight loss,\u201d adds Ond\u0159ej Kuda.<\/p>\n

Towards a universal diagnostic marker<\/h3>\n

Comprehensive combined analyses enabled the scientists to uncover specific metabolic changes typical of cancer-related wasting. They discovered that all organs showed enhanced activation of the so-called\u00a0one-carbon cycle<\/em> (involving vitamin B9 metabolism), which under normal conditions is essential for synthesizing the basic compounds of cells. Measuring the levels of metabolites involved in this cycle could, in the future, serve as biomarkers indicating cachexia.<\/p>\n

The study also revealed that when the one-carbon cycle becomes strongly activated in muscles, the body accelerates glucose utilization (glucose hypermetabolism) while simultaneously losing muscle mass (muscle atrophy). Preliminary experiments suggest that slowing down or blocking this process could help prevent muscle loss. Comparative analyses in eight different tumor models in mice (lung, intestinal, and pancreatic cancers) confirmed that metabolic changes in the one-carbon cycle represent a universal signature of cachexia, independent of cancer type.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was surprising to see that all organs respond to cachexia in the same metabolic way,\u201d says\u00a0Ond\u0159ej Kuda. \u201cThey lose their individual metabolic characteristics and reprogram themselves toward this specific, uniform metabolic process.\u201d<\/p>\n

One-carbon cycle as a therapeutic target<\/h3>\n

Currently, there is no approved treatment for cancer cachexia in either the Czech Republic or elsewhere in Europe. Several new approaches are being tested to address tumor-associated appetite loss. This study provides the first evidence suggesting that therapeutic interventions could focus on restoring normal metabolic processes. Preliminary experiments in cell cultures indicate that targeting the one-carbon cycle may have beneficial effects. Future studies will explore whether a systemic approach to the one-carbon cycle is effective or whether organ-specific therapies will be needed\u2014to not only restore patients\u2019 appetite but also normalize their metabolic functions. Such treatments could significantly improve quality of life and enhance the effectiveness of cancer therapies.<\/p>\n

The Czech part of this study was supported mainly by two projects of the\u00a0Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, while the German team received funding from the\u00a0European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant)\u00a0under the project\u00a0STOPWASTE<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Reference:<\/strong> Morigny et al., 2026: Multi-omics profiling of cachexia-target tissues reveals a spatiotemporal coordinated response to cancer. Nature Metabolism<\/em>. DOI:10.1038\/s42255-025-01434-3
\nhttps:\/\/m3cav.metabolomics.fgu.cas.cz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cachexia causes uncontrolled weight loss and muscle wasting in chronic diseases and cancer. A new study, conducted in collaboration between IPHYS and the Helmholtz Munich research centre, provides the first evidence for new therapeutic strategies. The researchers uncovered specific metabolic changes typical of cancer-associated weight loss\u2014showing that several organs respond to tumour presence in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":54689,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[142,113],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-for-media","category-important-success"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fgu.cas.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fgu.cas.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fgu.cas.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fgu.cas.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fgu.cas.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fgu.cas.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fgu.cas.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fgu.cas.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fgu.cas.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fgu.cas.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}