Posted on 01/01/2009 4:55:15 PM PST by SeekAndFind
A team of scientists from the US and China have discovered that grape-seed extract kills laboratory leukemia cells by making them commit suicide, thus showing the potential value of natural compounds in the treatment of cancer.
The study was the work of lead author, Dr Xianglin Shi, professor in the Graduate Center for Toxicology at the University of Kentucky and colleagues and is published online in the 1 January 2009 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
A number of studies have already revealed that eating fruit and vegetables helps to prevent cancer, and that this is likely due to the presence of proanthocyanidins. Shi and colleagues have already investigated this family of antioxidant compounds in apple peel and found it triggered cell death in cancer cells but not non-cancer cells.
Studies on grape seed extract have also suggested that it reduces breast tumors in rats and skin tumors in mice, and is active in a number of laboratory human cancer cell lines (such as skin, breast, colon, lung, stomach and prostate cancer cells), but until now nobody has investigated its effect on blood cancers.
Shi and colleagues used a commercially available grape seed extract and exposed leukemia cells to various concentrations of the extract for 12 and 24 hours, and also looked at what happened when leukemia cells were exposed to 50 µg/mL of the extract over various time intervals.
The results showed that exposure to grape seed extract resulted in dose and time-dependent increase in cancer cell apoptosis. They also discovered that the extract did not affect normal cells but they weren't able to determine why.
"This is a natural compound that appears to have relatively important properties," said Shi.
He and colleagues then examined the underlying mechanisms by which the grape seed extract caused the leukemia cells to commit suicide. They found that the extract had a strong effect on the activation of JNK, which led to the up-regulation of Cip/p21 (a CDK inhibitor which controls the cell cycle).
They double checked their finding by showing that the grape seed extract didn't work when used with an agent that blocked JNK: this was a pharmacologic approach. And using a genetic approach, they showed that silencing the JNK gene also disabled the grape seed extract's ability to trigger apoptosis.
Shi told the press that:
"These results could have implications for the incorporation of agents such as grape seed extract into prevention or treatment of hematological malignancies and possibly other cancers."
"What everyone seeks is an agent that has an effect on cancer cells but leaves normal cells alone, and this shows that grape seed extract fits into this category," he added.
Shi said these finding were not enough to warrant advising advise people to start eating lots of grapes, grape seeds, or grape skin in the hope they will avoid getting cancer. It's too early to say for sure that grape seed extract has this effect, even though the results are promising, he said.
Killing cancer cells in a test tube is not the same as treating tumors in live subjects.
In the US, hematological cancer like leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma accounted for over 118,000 new cases and nearly 54,000 deaths in 2006.
"Induction of Apoptosis in Human Leukemia Cells by Grape Seed Extract Occurs via Activation of c-Jun NH2-Terminal Kinase."
Ning Gao, Amit Budhraja, Senping Cheng, Hua Yao, Zhuo Zhang, and Xianglin Shi Clin Cancer Res Vol 15, Issue 1, pages 140-149, Published 1 January 2009 doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-08-1447
http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/15/1/140
Thanks, but eating lots of organic fruits including grapes, will do the same thing, prevent cancer. Cancer cannot grow in an alkaline body, only acidic.
great news for rats. They have beaten cancer for the umpteenth time!
Like, *PING*, dude and dude-ette.
And apricot seeds are the “active” ingredient in the mother of all cancer quackery, Laetrille.
Then how do you explain cancers in people who only eat fruits and vegetables?
Can you explain this? How does a body become acidic exactly.
I think she is talking abou yin yang foods, I hope she responds I am wondering too. This is why I eat pickled beets, sauekraut and pickles in the wintertime plus fruits. Otherwise my diet is way too much cooked foods especuially in the winter. As I recall that makes the body acidic.
Organic Corn and raspberries have over 50% more anti oxidents then conventionally grown crops. It is believed the plants produce more of these compounds to aid them in fighting off pests and aid them in competing against competition from weeds.
But I am sure you know that.
Prediction: Sales of Grape Seed Extract supplement, in capsule or tablet form, will soar 2000 percent for the first 30 days of 2009.
Prediction: It won’t make a damn bit of difference for the people who take it for a while, then figure “well, that oughta do it.”
“How does a body become acidic exactly”
Everything you eat has residual components. The components may be either acidic or alkaline. Eating too much of one or the other can change the pH of body fluids and can be measured in urine.
Some medical conditions and therapies also create excess acidity in the tissues. Diabetics, for example, can have a problem with acidosis.
It doesn't. The body carefully regulates pH. The quackery about body acidity goes back at 100 years.
I have heard forward-thinking doctors say that eating organic grapes with the seeds still in them, and eating the seeds, will be very healthful.
Seedless grapes?
I enjoy my grape seed extract in liquid form with some alcohol added for taste- it’s this new fangled stuff known as wine.
Thanks for the ping. Happy New Year!
Some WAG just added red wine to the keywords...
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