DHA Destroys Neuroblastoma Cells

March 5, 2010

An article

in the March, 2010 issue of the Journal of the Federation of

American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB Journal)

reports the discovery by scientists at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm,

Sweden, in collaboration with researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital

and Harvard Medical School, of the ability of docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA, to

kill neuroblastoma cells in vitro. Neuroblastoma is a

cancer that originates in the sympathetic nervous system of an embryo or fetus.

Five year survival is high when the disease is diagnosed in infancy, but

averages 35 percent in children who develop the disease at a later age. It is

currently treated with surgery, chemotherapy, radiation or bone marrow transplant.

Docosahexaenoic

acid is the most abundant fatty acid in the brain, and is necessary for proper

neural development of the fetus. Increased DHA intake is associated with a

number of benefits, including protection against several types of cancer. Helena

Gleissman, PhD of Karolinska Institutet's Childhood Cancer Research Unit and

her colleagues tested the effect of DHA on cultured neuroblastoma cells and

analyzed them for DHA's metabolic byproducts. They found that while DHA itself

destroyed the cancer cells, the fatty acids derivatives were even more

effective at killing these cells.

The

current study and previous research show that while DHA has been demonstrated

to help protect neural cells from stress-induced apoptosis (programmed cell

death), it also induces apoptosis in neuroblastoma cells. The discovery may be

of significance for the treatment of other cancers, including those of the

colon and prostate. " We hope that this study can provide a deeper

understanding of the actions of omega-3 fatty acids and their products in

cancer cells, and why they can be of such high importance in treatment of the

disease, " Dr Gleissman commented. " Ultimately, we hope that we can be

able to cure more children with neuroblastoma, and possibly other cancers. "

" This

is good news for those looking to stop cancer, " FASEB Journal

Editor-in-Chief Gerald Weissmann, MD remarked. " We now know that DHA plays

both offense and defense when it comes to protecting our health. Its ability to

help prevent numerous diseases is well documented, but now we see that DHA or

one of its byproducts might serve as the starting point for a new class of

anticancer drugs. "

Higher omega-3 fatty acid intake correlated with reduced colon cancer risk

In a presentation at the Frontiers in Cancer

Prevention Research Conference, Sangmi Kim, PhD of the National Institute of

Environmental Health Sciences reported the finding of a reduction in the risk of

distal colorectal cancer in Caucasians who consume higher amounts of omega-3

fatty acids. Cancer of the distal colon, the area closest to the rectum, is the

most common type of colon cancer.

Dr Kim and colleagues at the University of North

Carolina compared 716 Caucasian and 213 African American men and women with

distal colorectal cancer to 787 Caucasian and 156 African American control

subjects for their study. Dietary questionnaire responses were evaluated to

determine omega-3 and other polyunsaturated fatty acid intake over the previous

year.

For participants whose intake of omega-3 fatty

acids was among the top 25 percent of participants, a 39 percent lower risk of

the disease was observed in comparison with subjects whose intake was in the

lowest fourth. The protective effect was limited to Caucasians.

" We were surprised that the association was

not also observed among blacks, " Dr Kim remarked. " We considered

several possible explanations but were not able to account for this difference

with the data we had. This finding warrants future study, but we should be

careful about drawing conclusions about potential racial differences in the

benefit from long-chain omega-3 fatty acids from this study. "

" Experimental data have shown benefits of

long-chain omega-3 fatty acids in colorectal carcinogenesis, ranging from

reduced tumor growth, suppression of angiogenesis and inhibition of

metastasis, " Dr Kim noted. " Our finding of inverse association

between dietary intakes of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids and distal large

bowel cancer in white participants adds additional support to the

hypothesis. "

Be Well

Dr. L

March 5, 2010

Good info, Dr. L.

That makes Dr, Mercola's Krill Oil look even better (it is quite high in DHA)

oleander soup , "Dr. Loretta Lanphier" <drlanphier wrote:>> > DHA Destroys Neuroblastoma Cells> > > An article in the March, 2010 issue of the Journal of the Federation of> American Societies for Experimental Biology ( <http://www.fasebj.org/> FASEB> Journal) reports the discovery by scientists at the Karolinska Institutet in> Stockholm, Sweden, in collaboration with researchers at Brigham and Women's> Hospital and Harvard Medical School, of the ability of docosahexaenoic acid,> or DHA, to kill neuroblastoma cells in vitro. . . .