**A promising drug–diet strategy against childhood cancer**

The Nature article “_Reprogramming neuroblastoma by diet-enhanced polyamine depletion_” by Sarah Cherkaoui, Christina S. Turn, Yuan Yuan, Wenyun Lu, Lifeng Yang, Matthew J. McBride, Caroline Eigenmann, George E. Allen, Olesya O. Panasenko, Lu Zhang, Annette Vu, Kangning Liu, Yimei Li, Om H. Gandhi, Lea F. Surrey, Sandra D. Kienast, Sebastian A. Leidel, Michael Wierer, Eileen White, Joshua D. Rabinowitz, Michael D. Hogarty, and **Raphael J. Morscher**, reports groundbreaking pre-clinical research on neuroblastoma, a highly lethal childhood cancer arising from neural crest cells. [Nature, 2025, 646(8085):707-715.](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09564-0) with direct access: [doi - 10.1038/s41586-025-09564-0.](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09564-0) 

Led by **Dr. Raphael J. Morscher**, a member of the TRANSLACORE society and head of the Pediatric Cancer Metabolism Laboratory at the Children’s Research Center, University of Zurich, the study shows that combining the approved drug difluoromethylornithine with a diet lacking the amino acids arginine and proline profoundly enhances treatment outcomes. 

This dual intervention depletes tumour polyamines, disrupts oncogenic protein translation, promotes tumour cell differentiation, and markedly improves survival. By exploiting metabolic vulnerabilities, this “drug + diet restriction” approach introduces a promising, low-toxicity strategy for reprogramming childhood cancers toward remission. 

This study is notable because it was the first to describe the role of polyamines in the codon-specific regulation of translation. These small, positively charged molecules have been found to facilitate the reading of codons with adenosine at the wobble position.  As these codons are enriched in certain gene sets, this directly links the cellular metabolic status to the cellular proteome. In neuroblastoma, polyamine depletion induces a pro-differentiation proteome, causing immature, aggressively growing neuroblasts to differentiate.

The publication was highly recognized by Nature, featured in the [News & Views](https://www.nature.com/nature/volumes/646/issues/8085) section, and selected for the [journal’s cover page](https://www.nature.com/nature/volumes/646/issues/8085), highlighting its scientific significance and broad impact within the research community. The work has garnered international attention, with TRANSLACORE highlighted across major scientific and news outlets.


picture: Avesta Rastan, Springer Nature

A new Nature study by member of the TRANSLACORE society - Raphael J. Morscher and colleagues reveals that combining a specific diet with the drug difluoromethylornithine can significantly slow neuroblastoma growth. By restricting the amino acids arginine and proline, researchers reduced polyamine production, molecules that fuel tumour growth. This dual approach disrupted cancer protein synthesis, and improved survival. The findings highlight how diet can be harnessed to reprogram aggressive childhood cancers toward remission. 

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Diet boosts drug effect against neuroblastoma

 COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding agency for research and innovation networks. Our Actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and enable scientists to grow their ideas by sharing them with their peers. This boosts their research, career and innovation. (www.cost.eu) | The TRANSLACORE Cost Action is bridging disciplines and expertise across Europe in order to advance an emerging field in cancer biology: translational control in cancer. It is providing a unique opportunity to understand this biological process leading to reconsider our view of gene expression control in this disease and deliver novel therapeutic opportunities.

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Diet boosts drug effect against neuroblastoma