Grape seed extract kills head and neck cancer cells, leaves healthy cells unharmed (2/9/2012)
Nearly 12,000 people will die of head and neck cancer in the United States this year and worldwide cases will exceed half a million.
A study published this week in the journal Carcinogenesis shows that in both cell lines and mouse models, grape seed extract (GSE) kills head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cells, while leaving healthy cells unharmed.
"It's a rather dramatic effect," says Rajesh Agarwal, PhD, investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
It depends in large part, says Agarwal, on a healthy cell's ability to wait out damage.
"Cancer cells are fast-growing cells," Agarwal says. "Not only that, but they are necessarily fast growing. When conditions exist in which they can't grow, they die."
Grape seed extract creates these conditions that are unfavorable to growth. Specifically, the paper shows that grape seed extract both damages cancer cells' DNA (via increased reactive oxygen species) and stops the pathways that allow repair (as seen by decreased levels of the DNA repair molecules Brca1 and Rad51 and DNA repair foci).
"Yet we saw absolutely no toxicity to the mice, themselves," Agarwal says.
Again, the grape seed extract killed the cancer cells but not the healthy cells.
"I think the whole point is that cancer cells have a lot of defective pathways and they are very vulnerable if you target those pathways. The same is not true of healthy cells," Agarwal says.
The Agarwal Lab hopes to move in the direction of clinical trials of grape seed extract, potentially as an addition to second-line therapies that target head and neck squamous cell carcinoma that has failed a first treatment.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by the University of Colorado Denver
Post Comments:
| 
Subscribe
Researchers gain greater insight into earthquake cycles
The millennium-old olive trees of the Iberian Peninsula are younger than expected
Science nugget: Lightning signature could help reveal the solar system's origins
Antarctic octopus sheds light on ice-sheet collapse
Power generation technology based on piezoelectric nanocomposite materials developed
Scientists make stunning inner space observations
Molecular spectroscopy tracks living mammalian cells in real time as they differentiate
Mini cargo transporters on a rat run
Novel radiation surveillance technology could help thwart nuclear terrorism
Purple sea urchin metamorphosis controlled by histamine
Scholars to apply facial recognition software to unidentified portrait subjects
World's largest digital camera project passes critical milestone
'Inhabitants of Madrid' ate elephants? meat and bone marrow 80,000 years ago
Robots fighting wars could be blamed for mistakes on the battlefield
X-rays create a window on glass formation
Can sound science guide dispersant use during subsea oil spills?
How Usain Bolt can run faster -- effortlessly
Jellyfish inspires latest ocean-powered robot
Growing market for human organs exploits poor
Chimpanzees have policemen, too
Playful learning inside a square
Can consuming caffeine while breastfeeding harm your baby?
Discovery of extremely long-lived proteins may provide insight into cell aging
Detailed picture of how myoV 'walks' along actin tracks
Enhancing cognition in older adults also changes personality
A new artificial intelligence technique to speed the planning of tasks when resources are limited
Film coatings made from whey
If a fat tax is coming, here's how to make it efficient, effective