Chapter 18 - Treating the pH gradient inversion

Abstract

The main objective of the pH-centered treatments is to reverse the inverted pH gradient of cancer. The first alteration that the cancer cell does is to create a high intracellular pH and this is the first characteristic/hallmark it reverses in the process of apoptosis in order to protect themselves. This chapter puts together the pieces of the puzzle and presents a therapeutic strategy to address the problem. The therapeutic targeting is primarily directed against intracellular alkalinity and secondarily against extracellular acidity (e.g., induce a pH-gradient reversal toward normal). For this, the therapeutic efforts try to induce intracellular acidification by inhibiting the main proton extruders. A concerted and planned combination of these acidifiers decreases intracellular pH to levels that induce apoptosis and/or allow apoptosis to spontaneously develop. Normal cells do not have this pH gradient inversion and, thus, are not affected by treatment. This attack on the cellular proton extrusion system does not interfere with standard treatment protocols and it is not at all, or almost negligibly, toxic for normal cells. The results should improve when this treatment is associated with anti-angiogenic drugs.