D-cysteine for cancer

Inhibiting the mitochondrial cysteine desulfurase NFS1 via supplementation with the D-enantiomer of the amino acid cysteine could help treat cancer by blocking NFS1’s extraction of sulfur groups from cysteines, which is a key step in Fe-S protein biogenesis, and thereby decreasing tumor cell proliferation.

In human lung cancer cells, a screen of L- and D-enantiomers of proteinogenic amino acids identified D-cysteine as the only candidate to inhibit colony formation and cell proliferation. ...