The benefit of fruit and vegetables

Abbycat2
Abbycat2 Member Posts: 644 Member
in Uterine/Endometrial Cancer #1

 Good Morning, ladies,

I came across this article and thought it was interesting.  I know that p53 has something to do with my UPSC diagnosis and this article helped me to understand it a little better.  

I hope and pray for you all to be healthy and I wish you the best during this holiday season!

 

Cathy  

Re: p53--Cancer Treatment: How Eating Fruit And Vegetables Can Improve Cancer Patients' Response To Chemotherapy

california_artist

Posts: 850
Joined: Jan 2009

Jan 13, 2012 - 12:48 pm

Cancer Treatment: How Eating Fruit And Vegetables Can Improve Cancer Patients' Response To Chemotherapy
ScienceDaily (Oct. 22, 2008) — The leading cause of death in all cancer patients continues to be the resistance of tumor cells to chemotherapy, a form of treatment in which chemicals are used to kill cells.

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Now a study by UC Riverside biochemists that focuses on cancer cells reports that ingesting apigenin – a naturally occurring dietary agent found in vegetables and fruit – improves cancer cells' response to chemotherapy.

Xuan Liu, a professor of biochemistry, and Xin Cai, a postdoctoral researcher working in her lab, found that apigenin localizes tumor suppressor p53, a protein, in the cell nucleus – a necessary step for killing the cell that results in some tumor cells responding to chemotherapy.

The study, published in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides a novel approach to conquer tumor resistance to chemotherapy, and suggests an avenue for developing safe chemotherapy via naturally occurring agents.

Normally, cells have low levels of p53 diffused in their cytoplasm and nucleus. When DNA in the nucleus is damaged, p53 moves to the nucleus where it activates genes that stop cell growth and cause cell death. In this way, p53 ensures that cells with damaged DNA are killed.

In many cancers, p53 is rendered inactive by a process called cytoplasmic sequestration. Apigenin is able to activate p53 and transport it into the nucleus, resulting in a stop to cell growth and cell death.

"In therapy you want to kill cancer cells," explained Cai, the first author of the research paper. "But to stop cell growth and to kill the cell, p53 first needs to be moved to the cell's nucleus to function. Apigenin is very effective in localizing p53 this way."

Apigenin is mainly found in fruit (including apples, cherries, grapes), vegetables (including parsley, artichoke, basil, celery), nuts and plant-derived beverages (including tea and wine). It has been shown by researchers to have growth inhibitory properties in several cancer lines, including breast, colon, skin, thyroid and leukemia cells. It has also been shown to inhibit pancreatic cancer cell proliferation.

"Our study advocates the inclusion of vegetables and fruit in our daily diet to help prevent cancer," said Liu, the research paper's coauthor.

The National Institutes of Health supported the five-year study.

Next in their research Liu and Cai plan to design therapies for cancer by finding compounds that are like, but perform better than, apigenin.

url for the epigenetics section for similar articles.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/health_medicine/epigenetics/

Comments

  • Kaleena
    Kaleena Member Posts: 2,088 Member
    #2
    Thanks for the article.,

    Thanks for the article., Cathy.

    Kathy

  • Tarans
    Tarans Member Posts: 13
    #3
    Interesting article, but

    just because it works in a lab setting doesn't mean that it will do any good to the patient.  With one exception, every person I've known who had cancer, including myself,  was eating lots of fruits and vegetables for years before being diagnosed.  In fact, I just read something that showed that being a vegetarian doesn't seem to change your risk of cancer.  While you may be slightly less likely to get one kind of cancer, you are a higher risk to get another kind.  

     

    I am not totally knocking it though. There have been cases of apparent remission of cancer by those who switched to a macrobiotic diet.  Whether it was a diet switch from a horribly bad diet or just luck, hard to say since I don't think there have been any large studies to confirm it.  I had a distant cousin who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer who went on a  macrobiotic diet and went into remission. He eventually died of pancreatic cancer 18 years later.  Maybe he did improve his diet enough to kick in the immune system considering that he didn't have chemo, but age reduced immune system probably caught up with him.

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