Re-evaluating Dietary Milk Recommendations

Dear Professor Cordain,

In regards the review paper of which you were co-author: “The impact of cow’s milk-mediated mTORC1-signaling in the initiation and progression of prostate cancer,” could you please inform me whether you are aware of any country’s medical community who has responded to your conclusive statement that: “…the medical community urgently needs to re-evaluate dietary milk recommendations.”

This has not occurred thus far in my country of Australia.

Please excuse me for further taxing your valuable time, but could you also inform me of the details leading to the changing of the designation of the ‘m’ in the mTORC acronym from ‘mammalian’ to ‘mechanistic’, as it appears in your co-author Bodo Melnik’s 2013 paper: “Milk is not just food but most likely a genetic transfection system activating mTORC1 signaling for postnatal growth.“

Many thanks in anticipation.
Kind regards,

Dr. Ross Partington

Bodo Melnik’s Response:

Dear Dr. Partington,

Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) has been renamed in an mTOR consensus conference to mechanistic target of rapamycin. The official nomenclature according to OMIM.org is now:

601231 MECHANISTIC TARGET OF RAPAMYCIN; MTOR

Alternative titles; symbols MAMMALIAN TARGET OF RAPAMYCIN FKBP12-RAPAMYCIN COMPLEX-ASSOCIATED PROTEIN 1; FRAP1 FK506-BINDING PROTEIN 12-RAPAMYCIN COMPLEX-ASSOCIATED PROTEIN 1 FRAP FRAP2 RAFT1

The mTOR protein or function has not changed also there are various synonyms, a matter of history in molecular biology.

Best regards,

Bodo C. Melnik, Ph.D
Department of Dermatology
Environmental Medicine and Health Theory
University of Osnabrück, Sedanstrasse
Germany