Składnik soku z granatów może blokować przerzuty komórek raka prostaty do kości — sugerują badania, o których informuje serwis internetowy EurekAlert.
Researchers from the University of California at Riverside showed it in studies on prostate cancer cells resistant to the so-called hormone therapy.
Prostate cancer is classified as a hormone-dependent cancer because it is stimulated to grow by the male sex hormone testosterone. Therefore, in patients in the advanced stage of this cancer – when it has recurred after surgery and irradiation or when the cancer has spread beyond the prostate gland – the so-called hormone therapy. The simplest and cheapest variation is the surgical removal of testosterone-producing testicles, but many patients prefer to lower androgen levels with medication.
Over time, prostate cancer cells also become insensitive to this therapy and begin to aggressively multiply, metastasizing to bones, lungs and lymph nodes.
W swoich wcześniejszych badaniach naukowcy pod kierunkiem dr Manueli Martins-Green sprawdzali działanie soku z granatów na dwóch liniach komórek raka prostaty, na które nie działał testosteron. Oznacza to, że komórki nie są pobudzane do wzrostu przez ten hormon, a zatem są oporne na hormonoterapię i mogą łatwo dawać przerzuty.
It turned out that more cancer cells died under the influence of the juice, and the surviving ones stuck to the substrate better and migrated less frequently than the cells not exposed to the juice.
In recent experiments, Dr. Martins-Green and her colleagues identified the ingredients in pomegranate juice that affect the adhesion and migration processes of prostate cancer cells. These included phenylpropanoids, hydrobenzoic acid, flavones and conjugated fatty acids.
The researcher explains that these compounds strongly inhibit the activity of a certain protein in the bone marrow, which attracts cancer cells to the bones, where they can create new neoplastic lesions.
Having identified these natural ingredients, we can now modify them to be even more effective in preventing prostate cancer metastasis, comments Dr. Martins-Green.
And since the genes and proteins involved in the migration of prostate cancer cells are essentially the same as for other cancers, the modified ingredients in pomegranate juice could find wider therapeutic use, the authors believe.
In the future, scientists from Dr. Martins-Green’s team plan to perform additional animal tests to see if these compounds can prevent metastasis without having strong side effects.
Naukowcy zaprezentowali wyniki swoich badań na 50. dorocznym spotkaniu Amerykańskiego Towarzystwa Biologii Komórki, które odbywało się od 11 do 15 grudnia w Filadelfii. (PAP)