Flavonoids work together to inhibit cancer cells (article)

[Guest guest]

Saw this on yesterday's SoFlaVegans digest and thought you might be interested.

It's always good to find new reasons for consuming what we find delicious!

 

Best, Pat

-------

Flavonoids work together to inhibit cancer cells

30/03/2005

 

http://foodnavigator-usa.com/news/ng.asp?id=59037 & n=dt89 & c=qdrhrvoeraoqydo

 

Components in grapes, including some newly

identified ones, work

together to dramatically inhibit an enzyme

crucial to the

proliferation of cancer cells, a US research team

reports.

 

The findings add to the argument for eating whole

foods, as synergy

between the compounds is key to their success

against the enzyme.

 

The enzyme, known as human DNA topoisomerase II,

is necessary for the

spread of cancer and commonly used in cancer

research to screen plant

chemicals.

 

Flavonoids found in significant quantities in red

wine, tea and dark

chocolate, are considered responsible for the

protection these foods

have been shown to offer over heart disease and

cancers.

 

But scientists at the University of Illinois at

Urbana-Champaign

dispel the theory that single flavonoids could be

offered in

supplements to protect against disease.

 

In an early online edition of the Journal of

Agricultural and Food

Chemistry (pp 2489 - 2498;DOI:

10.1021/jf048524w), they describe a

dozen new constituents in grape-cell culture

extracts.

 

They report that new chemicals from the

proanthocyanidin and

anthocyanin classes of the flavonoid family

worked together to have a

greater effect against topoisomerase II than the

previously

identified flavonoids quercetin and resveratrol.

Alone, the

individual components had less effect on the

enzyme.

 

" It's very clear that the synergy is critical.

When a cell becomes

malignant that enzyme is expressed 300 times more

than in a normal

cell. If we can find a compound or mixture of

compounds that can

reduce the activity of that enzyme, the cancerous

cells will die, "

said author Elvira Gonzalez de Mejia, a professor

in food science and

human nutrition.

 

" We definitely had very potent activity against

the particular

antibody system we were using, which was that of

the critical

proliferation stage of carcinogenesis, " added

Mary Ann Lila, a

professor in the department of natural resources

and environmental

sciences.

 

" In our subsequent studies now under way in

animal models, we are

getting direct evidence that these components in

grapes work

synergistically in fighting cancer. They have to

work together to

obtain the potency that works. "

 

The researchers have also found these compounds

to be highly

bioavailable in a study that tracks the

flavonoids moving around the

bloodstream of rats.

 

" By eating the fruit, we know that the bioactive

component involved

goes into your bloodstream and relocates to other

regions. Before

now, we didn't really know that, " said de Mejia.

 

Eventually, Lila said, researchers may be able to

determine

reasonable dosages for therapeutic consumption of

flavonoid-rich

grapes. Supplements containing specific

flavonoids will probably not

result in desired benefits because complementary

components required

for synergistic activity may be missing.