Register for Certain grape wine chemicals are toxic to breast cancer cells
FlavonoidsMay 25, 2004
2004 MAY 25 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Certain grape wine chemicals are toxic to breast cancer cells.
"Red wine is a rich source of polyphenolic components such as anthocyanins and flavonoids. The inhibitory effects of red wine polyphenolics on human breast cancer cells have been demonstrated earlier, but their effects on normal cells have not been fully established. Red wine (Merlot) was fractionated by hydrophobic interaction chromatography and different flavonoid fractions with increasing hydrophobicity were obtained," scientists writing in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment report.
"These fractions were tested for their inhibitory effect on human breast cancer cells (MCF-7), normal human mammary epithelial cells (HMEC), and a non-tumorigenic MCF-10A cell line. By contrast to the authentic flavonoids such as quercetin, naringenin and catechin, which inhibited the growth of HMEC much more than that of MCF-7 cancer cells, a red wine fraction that was comprised mainly of the flavonoid aglycones showed maximal inhibition of the growth of breast cancer cells, with relatively low cytotoxicity towards HMEC and MCF-10A cells," stated F. Hakimuddin and colleagues, University of Guelph, Department of Plant Agriculture.
"In the presence of this flavonoid fraction, the normal cells grew normally, whereas the breast cancer cells underwent a change in morphology into spherical forms. Cytotoxicity analyses suggested that these cells had become apoptotic. The efficiency of inhibition of cell proliferation by various flavonoid fractions appeared to be related to their inhibition of calcium and calmodulin-promoted phosphodiesterase activity, suggesting that flavonoids may interfere with calcium second messenger function," study authors said.
"The results suggest that certain grape wine ingredients have anticancer properties and these ingredients may be helpful for developing designer functional foods with cancer-preventive properties," they said.
Hakimuddin and colleagues published their study in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment (Selective cytotoxicity of a red grape wine flavonoid fraction against MCF-7 cells. Breast Cancer Res Treat, 2004;85(1):65-79).
Additional information can be obtained by contacting G. Paliyath, University Guelph, Department Plant Agriculture, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada.
The publisher of the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment can be contacted at: Kluwer Academic Publ, Van Godewijckstraat 30, 3311 Gz Dordrecht, Netherlands.
The information in this article comes under the major subject areas of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Oncology and Cancer Therapy. This article was prepared by Cancer Weekly editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2004, Cancer Weekly via NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net.
©Copyright 2004, Women's Health Weekly via NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net
