Author(s)

Kenneth J. Hsu, Chao S. Huangfu, Min Z. Qin

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Statistics and experiments indicate a correlation between cancer mortality and nitrite in drinking water. Nitrite is a reductant that can deprive a cell of oxygen; it is also an oxidant that can be a substrate in anaerobic ammonium oxidation, the metabolic mode of the anammox bacteria. Eukaryote cells evolved through a fusion of anaerobic and aerobic bacteria. We postulate that an anammox bacterium sought refuge in a fusion with a membrane-bound cluster of aerobic bacteria. While the latter evolved into mitochondria organelles, the former became the nucleus of a prokaryote cell. Eventually, oxidative phosphorilation is the characteristic metabolic pathway of normal eukaryote cells, and we postulate that anammox is the protein-catabolism pathway for cancer cells. The metabolism consumes nitrite and explains thus the link between nitrite and cancer.

Nitrite, Tomor, Symbiogenetic Evolution

K. Hsu, C. Huangfu and M. Qin, "Role of Nitrite in Tumor Growth, Symbiogenetic Evolution of Cancer Cells, and China’s Successes in the War against Cancer," Journal of Cancer Therapy, Vol. 2 No. 5, 2011, pp. 601-606. doi: 10.4236/jct.2011.25080.