Cancer + Fish
_Fish oil compound stops leukemia in mice
A compound produced from fish oil that appears to target leukemia stem cells could lead to a cure for the disease, researchers say.
The compound—delta-12-protaglandin J3, or D12-PGJ3—targeted and killed the stem cells of chronic myelogenous leukemia, or CML, in mice, says Sandeep Prabhu, associate professor of immunology and molecular toxicology at Penn State.
The compound is produced from EPA—Eicosapentaenoic Acid—an omega-3 fatty acid found in fish and in fish oil.
“Research in the past on fatty acids has shown the health benefits of fatty acids on cardiovascular system and brain development, particularly in infants, but we have shown that some metabolites of omega-3 have the ability to selectively kill the leukemia-causing stem cells in mice,” says Prabhu. “The important thing is that the mice were completely cured of leukemia with no relapse.”
The findings, published in the journal Blood, show the compound kills cancer-causing stem cells in the mice’s spleen and bone marrow. Specifically, it activates a gene—p53—in the leukemia stem cell that programs the cell’s own death.
“p53 is a tumor suppressor gene that regulates the response to DNA damage and maintains genomic stability,” Prabhu says. Killing the stem cells in leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells, is important because stem cells can divide and produce more cancer cells, as well as create more stem cells.
The current therapy for CML extends the patient’s life by keeping the number of leukemia cells low, but the drugs fail to completely cure the disease because they don’t target leukemia stem cells, says Robert Paulson, associate professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences, who co-directed the research with Prabhu.
“The patients must take the drugs continuously,” says Paulson. “If they stop, the disease relapses because the leukemia stem cells are resistant to the drugs.”
Current treatments are unable to kill the leukemia stem cells. According to the American Cancer Society, about 5,150 new cases of CML are reported annually and approximately 270 people die from the disease each year.
“These stem cells can hide from the treatment, and a small population of stem cells give rise to more leukemia cells,” says Paulson. “So, targeting the stem cells is essential if you want to cure leukemia.”
During the experiments, the researchers injected each mouse with about 600 nanograms of D12-PGJ3 each day for a week. Tests showed that the mice were completely cured of the disease. The blood count was normal, and the spleen returned to normal size. The disease did not relapse.
In previous experiments, the compound also killed the stem cells of Friend Virus-induced leukemia, an experimental model for human leukemia.
The researchers focused on D12-PGJ3 because it killed the leukemia stem cells, but had the least number of side effects. The researchers currently are working to determine whether the compound can be used to treat the terminal stage of CML, referred to as Blast Crisis. There are currently no drugs available that can treat the disease when it progresses to this stage.
The researchers, who applied for a patent, are also preparing to test the compound in human trials.
Source : Futurity.org
Link to Source
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Docosahexaenoic acid: A natural powerful adjuvant that improves efficacy for anticancer treatment with no adverse effects.
Siddiqui RA, Harvey KA, Xu Z, Bammerlin EM, Walker C, Altenburg JD
Cellular Biochemistry Laboratory, Indiana University Health, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA; Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA. [email protected].
Abstract
Epidemiological studies have linked fish oil consumption to a decreased incidence of cancer. The anticancer effects of fish oil are mostly attributed to its content of omega-3 fatty acids: eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). However, DHA, because of its unique effect of altering membrane composition, is often regarded as the major omega-3 fatty acid involved in anticancer activity. Although use of DHA as an anticancer drug to prevent or treat human cancer in clinical settings has not yet been well established, recent studies suggest that DHA can be very effective as an adjuvant with other anticancer agents. In this article, we present studies that show the role of DHA in improving anticancer drug efficacy. Several in vitro and animal studies suggest that combining DHA with other anticancer agents often improves efficacy of anticancer drugs and also reduces therapy-associated side effects. Incorporation of DHA in cellular membranes improves drug uptake, whereas increased lipid peroxidation is another mechanism for DHA-mediated enhanced efficacy of anticancer drugs. In addition, several intracellular targets including cyclooxygenase-2, nuclear factor kappa B, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma, mitogen-activated protein kinase, AKT, and BCL-2/BAX are found to play an important role in DHA-mediated additive or synergistic interaction with anticancer drugs. The data suggest that DHA is a safe, natural compound that can greatly improve the anticancer properties of anticancer drugs. Use of DHA with anticancer treatments provides an avenue to therapeutic improvement that involves less risk or side effects for patients and reduced regulatory burden for implementation.
Source : Biofactors. 2011 Oct 28. doi: 10.1002/biof.181. [Epub ahead of print]
Link to Abstract as above
Fish Oil, Breast cancer and Tamoxifen Therapy
A US study on rats found that tumours became more responsive to the drug tamoxifen with the addition of fish oil to their diets.
Researchers concluded that omega-3 fatty acids found in the fish oil could prove to be a safe and beneficial booster for tamoxifen therapy.
Tamoxifen blocks the female hormone oestrogen's ability to fuel breast cancer.
Rats with breast cancer were fed either a 17% fish oil diet or a 20% corn oil diet for eight weeks. In each case the oil supplement was given with or without tamoxifen.
Analysis of the tumours showed that omega-3 fatty acids in the fish oil increased the activity of genes promoting cellular specialisation, or differentiation.
This indicates an anti-cancer effect, since cancer cells are highly undifferentiated.
Combining fish oil and tamoxifen also reduced the activity of genes linked to tumour growth and cancer spread.
Study leader Dr Jose Russo, director of the Breast Cancer Research Laboratory at Fox Chase Cancer Center Philadelphia, said: "If a tumour was being treated with tamoxifen, the addition of an omega-3 fatty acid diet seemed to make the tumour, at least at the molecular level, more benign and less aggressive and responsive to tamoxifen."
The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Orlando, Florida
Source : Hospital Pharmacy Europe
Link to Source
A compound produced from fish oil that appears to target leukemia stem cells could lead to a cure for the disease, researchers say.
The compound—delta-12-protaglandin J3, or D12-PGJ3—targeted and killed the stem cells of chronic myelogenous leukemia, or CML, in mice, says Sandeep Prabhu, associate professor of immunology and molecular toxicology at Penn State.
The compound is produced from EPA—Eicosapentaenoic Acid—an omega-3 fatty acid found in fish and in fish oil.
“Research in the past on fatty acids has shown the health benefits of fatty acids on cardiovascular system and brain development, particularly in infants, but we have shown that some metabolites of omega-3 have the ability to selectively kill the leukemia-causing stem cells in mice,” says Prabhu. “The important thing is that the mice were completely cured of leukemia with no relapse.”
The findings, published in the journal Blood, show the compound kills cancer-causing stem cells in the mice’s spleen and bone marrow. Specifically, it activates a gene—p53—in the leukemia stem cell that programs the cell’s own death.
“p53 is a tumor suppressor gene that regulates the response to DNA damage and maintains genomic stability,” Prabhu says. Killing the stem cells in leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells, is important because stem cells can divide and produce more cancer cells, as well as create more stem cells.
The current therapy for CML extends the patient’s life by keeping the number of leukemia cells low, but the drugs fail to completely cure the disease because they don’t target leukemia stem cells, says Robert Paulson, associate professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences, who co-directed the research with Prabhu.
“The patients must take the drugs continuously,” says Paulson. “If they stop, the disease relapses because the leukemia stem cells are resistant to the drugs.”
Current treatments are unable to kill the leukemia stem cells. According to the American Cancer Society, about 5,150 new cases of CML are reported annually and approximately 270 people die from the disease each year.
“These stem cells can hide from the treatment, and a small population of stem cells give rise to more leukemia cells,” says Paulson. “So, targeting the stem cells is essential if you want to cure leukemia.”
During the experiments, the researchers injected each mouse with about 600 nanograms of D12-PGJ3 each day for a week. Tests showed that the mice were completely cured of the disease. The blood count was normal, and the spleen returned to normal size. The disease did not relapse.
In previous experiments, the compound also killed the stem cells of Friend Virus-induced leukemia, an experimental model for human leukemia.
The researchers focused on D12-PGJ3 because it killed the leukemia stem cells, but had the least number of side effects. The researchers currently are working to determine whether the compound can be used to treat the terminal stage of CML, referred to as Blast Crisis. There are currently no drugs available that can treat the disease when it progresses to this stage.
The researchers, who applied for a patent, are also preparing to test the compound in human trials.
Source : Futurity.org
Link to Source
_
Docosahexaenoic acid: A natural powerful adjuvant that improves efficacy for anticancer treatment with no adverse effects.
Siddiqui RA, Harvey KA, Xu Z, Bammerlin EM, Walker C, Altenburg JD
Cellular Biochemistry Laboratory, Indiana University Health, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA; Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA. [email protected].
Abstract
Epidemiological studies have linked fish oil consumption to a decreased incidence of cancer. The anticancer effects of fish oil are mostly attributed to its content of omega-3 fatty acids: eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). However, DHA, because of its unique effect of altering membrane composition, is often regarded as the major omega-3 fatty acid involved in anticancer activity. Although use of DHA as an anticancer drug to prevent or treat human cancer in clinical settings has not yet been well established, recent studies suggest that DHA can be very effective as an adjuvant with other anticancer agents. In this article, we present studies that show the role of DHA in improving anticancer drug efficacy. Several in vitro and animal studies suggest that combining DHA with other anticancer agents often improves efficacy of anticancer drugs and also reduces therapy-associated side effects. Incorporation of DHA in cellular membranes improves drug uptake, whereas increased lipid peroxidation is another mechanism for DHA-mediated enhanced efficacy of anticancer drugs. In addition, several intracellular targets including cyclooxygenase-2, nuclear factor kappa B, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma, mitogen-activated protein kinase, AKT, and BCL-2/BAX are found to play an important role in DHA-mediated additive or synergistic interaction with anticancer drugs. The data suggest that DHA is a safe, natural compound that can greatly improve the anticancer properties of anticancer drugs. Use of DHA with anticancer treatments provides an avenue to therapeutic improvement that involves less risk or side effects for patients and reduced regulatory burden for implementation.
Source : Biofactors. 2011 Oct 28. doi: 10.1002/biof.181. [Epub ahead of print]
Link to Abstract as above
Fish Oil, Breast cancer and Tamoxifen Therapy
A US study on rats found that tumours became more responsive to the drug tamoxifen with the addition of fish oil to their diets.
Researchers concluded that omega-3 fatty acids found in the fish oil could prove to be a safe and beneficial booster for tamoxifen therapy.
Tamoxifen blocks the female hormone oestrogen's ability to fuel breast cancer.
Rats with breast cancer were fed either a 17% fish oil diet or a 20% corn oil diet for eight weeks. In each case the oil supplement was given with or without tamoxifen.
Analysis of the tumours showed that omega-3 fatty acids in the fish oil increased the activity of genes promoting cellular specialisation, or differentiation.
This indicates an anti-cancer effect, since cancer cells are highly undifferentiated.
Combining fish oil and tamoxifen also reduced the activity of genes linked to tumour growth and cancer spread.
Study leader Dr Jose Russo, director of the Breast Cancer Research Laboratory at Fox Chase Cancer Center Philadelphia, said: "If a tumour was being treated with tamoxifen, the addition of an omega-3 fatty acid diet seemed to make the tumour, at least at the molecular level, more benign and less aggressive and responsive to tamoxifen."
The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Orlando, Florida
Source : Hospital Pharmacy Europe
Link to Source