Garlic 'Smart Bomb' Destroys Tumours in Mice

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Garlic 'Smart Bomb' Destroys Tumours in Mice

JoAnn Guest

Jun 15, 2004 10:10 PDT

 

 

 

Scientists in Israel have developed a new delivery method that

allows the garlic compound " allicin " to selectively kill cancer

cells, leaving healthy ones intact.

 

A team at the Weizmann Institute report that they destroyed

malignant tumors in mice by using a new, two-step system to

deliver " allicin "

straight to the tumor cells.

 

Allicin is the substance that gives garlic its distinctive aroma and

flavor. It is also potent and has been shown to kill not only cancer

cells, but also the cells of disease-causing microbes, and even

healthy human body cells. A researcher in the UK is currently using

it to fight

the hospital superbug MRSA.

 

Allicin is also highly unstable and breaks down quickly once

ingested.

This rapid breakdown and undiscriminating toxicity presented twin

hurdles to creating an allicin-based therapy.

 

Writing in the December issue of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics (2003

2: 1295-1301), Dr Aharon Rabinkov and his team discuss an ingenious

delivery method that works with the pinpoint accuracy of a smart

bomb.

The method parallels the way allicin is synthesized in nature. Not

present in whole, unbroken cloves of garlic, allicin is the product

of a biochemical reaction between two substances stored apart, the

enzyme

" alliinase " and a normally inert chemical called 'alliin'.

 

When the clove is crushed, the membranes separating compartments are

ruptured and rapid allicin *production* follows.

 

The scientists proposed that if doses of allicin could be repeatedly

generated in this way at the site of the tumor, the highest

concentration of the toxic molecules would be available for killing

cancer cells.

 

To zero in on the targeted tumor, scientists first injected an

antibody, chemically bound to allinase, that is 'programmed' to

recognize the

tumor's characteristic receptor.

 

In the bloodstream, the antibody seeks out these cells and lodges

itself and its passenger enzyme on the tumor cells. The scientists

then

inject the second component, " alliin " , at intervals.

 

When it encounters the " alliinase " , the resulting reaction turns the

normally inert 'alliin' molecules into *lethal* allicin molecules,

which penetrate and kill the tumor cells. Due to the precise

delivery system,

neighboring, healthy cells remain intact.

 

The researchers write that they succeeded in blocking the growth of

gastric tumors in mice using this method. The tumor-inhibiting

effects were seen up to the end of the experimental period, long

after the

internally produced allicin was spent.

 

This method could work for most types of cancer, as long as a

specific antibody can be customized to recognize receptors unique to

the cancer cells, add the researchers. The technique could prove

invaluable for

preventing metastasis following surgery.

 

" Even though doctors cannot detect where metastatic cells have

migrated and lodged themselves, the antibody-alliinase-alliin

combination should chase them down and destroy them anywhere in the

body, " said team member

Professor David Mirelman.

 

Republished with permission from Nutra Ingredients,

January 8, 2004

http://nowfoods.com/?action=itemdetail & item_id=19126