Apigenin-rich foods may help defeat
cancer cells
We are constantly being told what to eat, what not to eat, what is good for our eyesight and what helps us lose weight. Well here's one more recommendation that will help kill cancer cells.
Researchers at The Ohio
State University's Comprehensive Cancer Center found that the compound
identified as apigenin could stop breast cancer cells from inhibiting their own
death.
So what does this mean?
Well, the compound essentially re-educates cancer cells into normal cells,
causing them to die on a regular cycle.
Apigenin is a compound abundant in the Mediterranean diet and can be found in many fruits and vegetables, specifically parsley, celery, and chamomile tea.
What happens when we
ingest this compound is that the apigenin binds with an estimated 160 proteins
in the human body. Among the most important is a protein called hnRNPA2.
This protein influences
the activity of messenger RNA, or mRNA, which contains the instructions needed
to produce a specific protein. The production of mRNA results from the
modification of RNA that occurs as part of gene activation.
Doseff noted that
abnormal splicing is the culprit in an estimated 80 percent of all cancers. In
cancer cells, two types of splicing occur when only one would take place in a
normal cell — a trick on the cancer cells' part to keep them alive and
reproducing.
In this study, the
researchers observed that apigenin's connection to the hnRNPA2 protein restored
this single-splice characteristic to breast cancer cells, suggesting that when
splicing is normal, cells die in a programmed way, or become more sensitive to
chemotherapeutic drugs.
"We know we need to
eat healthfully, but in most cases we don’t know the actual mechanistic reasons
for why we need to do that," said Andrea Doseff, associate professor of
internal medicine and molecular genetics at Ohio State and a co-lead author of
the study.
"We see here that the beneficial effect on health is attributed to this dietary nutrient affecting many proteins. In its relationship with a set of specific proteins, apigenin re-establishes the normal profile in cancer cells. We think this can have great value clinically as a potential cancer-prevention strategy."
"We see here that the beneficial effect on health is attributed to this dietary nutrient affecting many proteins. In its relationship with a set of specific proteins, apigenin re-establishes the normal profile in cancer cells. We think this can have great value clinically as a potential cancer-prevention strategy."
The research appeared
this week in the online early edition of the journal Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences.
Read more at The Ohio State University.
