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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Saccharin received a bad rap after studies in the 1970s linked consumption of large amounts of the artificial sweetener to bladder cancer in laboratory rats. Later, research revealed that these findings were not relevant to people. And in a complete turnabout, recent studies indicate that saccharin can actually kill human cancer cells. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Journal of Medicinal Chemistry have made artificial sweetener derivatives that show improved activity against two tumor-associated enzymes.
Journal Reference:
Silvia Bua, et. al.“A Sweet Combination”: Developing Saccharin and Acesulfame K Structures for Selectively Targeting the Tumor-Associated Carbonic Anhydrases IX and XII. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2019; DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.9b01669
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 21 2019, @09:22PM (7 children)
I read websites that claim Aspartame can be used to kill ants assuming they take it. I also read claims on other websites that they don't always take it and they can sometimes tell the difference between aspartame and real sugar. Different sites say different things and it's not clear.
Aspartame breaks down to methanol which breaks down to formaldehyde which can be mutagenic.
I wonder if Saccharin has any byproducts? I noticed the Wikipedia article says
"It is about 300–400 times as sweet as sucrose but has a bitter or metallic aftertaste, especially at high concentrations"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccharin [wikipedia.org]
If it has a bitter aftertaste is that because it broke down into or reacted with something else?
"Saccharin can be used to prepare exclusively disubstituted amines from alkyl halides via a nucleophilic substitution,[40] followed by a Gabriel synthesis."
Not sure this sounds relevant here though.
Perhaps Saccarine can sometimes, but not always, trick the cancer cells into thinking it's a nutrient when it's not similar to how aspartame can maybe sometimes trick ants into thinking it's sugar when it's not. Maybe in the absence of alternative nutrients it's more effective.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Saturday December 21 2019, @10:53PM (3 children)
Likely there are a whole host of factors that have been left out of the studies, and we don't understand what effect each of them add or subtract. Duplicate the study and you should get the same results. Alter the amounts of other factors and the results might be quite different.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 22 2019, @01:02AM (2 children)
Most likely. It would be interesting to see the results if these experiments were done with other artificial sweeteners such as sucralose, cyclamate, and maybe even aspartame. Or a mixture of them.
To the AC below
"The bitter aftertaste is because it bonds just as easily with the bitter taste receptors as the sweet ones."
Thanks. I searched and read about it. I found it interesting that combining saccharin with cyclamate helps reduce the bitter aftertaste even though both saccharin and cyclamate both individually have a bitter aftertaste. One website said it's because they trigger different taste buds associated with bitterness but each inhibits receptors from the bitter taste buds that the other triggers.
Another website said something to the extent that perhaps the nitrogen in saccharin can ionize in the presence of sodium or potassium. So perhaps saccharin isn't immediately bitter because it takes a short while to get exposed to the sodium/potassium in your body/mouth before it becomes bitter.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday December 22 2019, @12:50PM (1 child)
"maybe even aspartame. "
Acesulphame K (potassium) IS Aspartame: Aspartame is the brand name.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 23 2019, @01:25AM
Aspartame [wikipedia.org]: C14H18N2O5
Ace K [wikipedia.org]: C4H4KNO4S
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 22 2019, @12:11AM
The bitter aftertaste is because it bonds just as easily with the bitter taste receptors as the sweet ones.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 22 2019, @02:07AM (1 child)
OK, so I went and actually read the article and apparently everything I said was wrong. Sorry about this.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RS3 on Sunday December 22 2019, @05:05AM
It's okay- you stimulate people's interest and thinking.