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Saccharin could help beat cancer - despite first being though to cause it, researchers have found.

University of Florida Health researchers have found that the artificial sweetener can inhibit cancer cell growth.

They say it could be used to slow the cancer's growth, providing the opportunity for radiation or chemotherapy to be more effective at killing off the cancer cell.

Researchers carried out their initial experiments using Sweet 'N Low from a local coffee shop.

 It shows 'considerable promise' for its ability to inhibit an enzyme upregulated in many cancers, helping tumor cells survive and metastasize, said Robert McKenna, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the UF College of Medicine.

After testing its effectiveness on cancer cells, researchers believe saccharin could eventually lead to the development of drugs that treat highly aggressive cancers affecting the breast, liver, prostate, kidney and pancreas. 

The findings were published recently in the journal Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry and are being presented on Wednesday at the American Chemical Society convention in Denver.

The discovery might never have happened if not for Brian Mahon, a curious UF graduate research assistant. 

He wanted to know how saccharin might affect the enzyme, carbonic anhydrase IX, which is found in aggressive cancers. 

But Mahon didn't want to wait a week for an order of pure saccharin to arrive at the lab. 

He bounced an idea off Jenna Driscoll, an undergraduate student majoring in microbiology and nutritional science, and Mam Mboge, a graduate student who had just joined the lab.

'So we just went to a coffee shop and got some Sweet 'N Low. I said, 'Let's just try it' and we did and collected some data,' Mahon recalled.

After doing some initial experimenting, the researchers are collaborating with Susan Frost, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, to look at saccharin's effect on breast cancer cells.

'Mam literally took Sweet 'N Low and saccharin and showed that the rate of growth of the cancer cell slows down when you added it,' said McKenna, the paper's lead author and Mahon's mentor.

The saccharin disrupts carbonic anhydrase IX's ability to regulate the cancer cell's pH level -- its hydrogen ion concentration. 

That ultimately makes it harder for the cancer cell to grow and metastasize, researchers found.

Any saccharin-based drugs would probably be used in conjunction with traditional cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation, according to the researchers.

Targeting carbonic anhydrase IX is also an attractive option because it's not expressed in most other cells throughout the body, meaning that healthy tissue should remain unaffected even as cancer cells are weakened, McKenna said.

Any saccharin-based drugs would probably be used in conjunction with traditional cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation, according to the researchers. 

A saccharin drug would slow the cancer's growth, providing the opportunity for radiation or chemotherapy to be more effective at killing off the cancer cell.

'It could help make conventional chemotherapy more effective,' McKenna said.  

The researchers want to further test saccharin's effectiveness in cancer cells and eventually move to mouse models. 

This summer, they plan to submit grant requests that will allow additional study and build on the data that have been acquired, McKenna said.