Chilipepers tegen kanker.*

Uit Engels onderzoek blijkt dat de bioactieve stof, capsaïcine in chilli pepers kankercellen doet doodgaan. De onderzoekers onderzochten eerst longkankercellen. De capsaïcine viel de mitochondria (noem het de energiecentrale van een cel) van de kankercel aan waardoor de kankercel afstierf terwijl gezonde cellen geen enkele schade opliepen. Verder werden ook pancreaskankercellen getest met eenzelfde resultaat en dat is zeer opmerkelijk omdat pancreaskanker zeer agressief is met een zeer lage overlevingskans. Wellicht is dit ook een verklaring waarom in landen zoals Mexico of India waar veel hete pepers gegeten worden het aantal gevallen van kanker zoveel minder is. Deze studie werd uitgevoerd door een team van onderzoekers zowel uit Engeland als uit China. Men wil verder onderzoeken waarom de traditionele Chinese geneeskunde zo succesvol is bij het behandelen van kanker, terwijl juist in het Westen deze Chinese geneeskunde als alternatief wordt beschouwd. In China daarentegen is deze traditionele geneeskunde een belangrijk deel van de Chinese gezondheidszorg.

Non-prescription Compound Found In Chillies Destroys Cancer Tumours Safely

UK scientists have shown that capsaicin, the chemical that burns your mouth when you eat chillies and an active ingredient of over the counter drugs, can kill cancer cells with little or no harmful side-effects.
The study is published in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications.
The team that conducted the research came from the Universities of Nottingham in England and Cardiff, in Wales, and was led by Dr Timothy Bates, who is a member of the Medical Research Council (MRC) College of Experts.
The researchers believe that capsaicin, and other similar compounds, attack the mitochondria of cancerous cells, causing them to "switch off" and die (apoptosis, or cell death) without harming surrounding tissue. Mitochondria are organelles (tiny granules of tissue with their own DNA) that live inside the cells of our bodies and convert nutrients into ATP - the chemical fuel that feeds our cells with energy.
Dr Bates, who is an international expert in anti-cancer drug development and mitochondrial research in particular, said this discovery might explain the low incidence of cancer in countries where they eat a lot of chillies like Mexico and India.
From a development view this discovery is exciting for two reasons. First, because capsaicin and related compounds already exist in food that is eaten regularly, they are already safe, readily available and not unknown. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly as far as development costs and timescales go, these compounds have already been approved for use in a range of drugs such as skin ointments to treat psoriasis and neuralgia. Converting their use to treat cancer would be much cheaper and quicker compared to starting from scratch with a new compound.
Dr Bates and his colleagues tested the capsaicin on H460 human lung cancer cells, which is recognised as the "gold standard" for new anti-cancer drugs. However, they also tested similar compounds on pancreatic cancer cells and found the same effect - the tumour cells died off leaving the surrounding tissue intact. This is a very exciting result because pancreatic cancer has a five-year survival rate of less than one per cent and is currently one of the most stubborn cancers to treat.
The study that led to this discovery is the first to emerge from a newly formed Nottingham UK-China Collaboration on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NUKCAM). The collaboration has members from the University of Nottingham and the Chinese National Academy of Sciences, for example Professor De-An Guo, who is head of the Shanghai Research Centre for the Modernization of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Prof Guo is working with Dr Bates to discover why traditional Chinese medicines are successful in treating cancer and other diseases.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is considered an alternative medicine in the west. But in China it is an important part of the public health care system.
The last twenty or so years have seen an increasing interest on the part of the West and China to come together and explore this wealth of knowledge that dates back thousands of years. The main thrust of joint projects, like this one, is to examine the theories and uses of TCM using western scientific methods and tools.
Another important milestone in this East-West collaboration will be when The World Health Organization's (WHO) initiative to to standardize TCM nomenclature reaches conclusion. It is said to be in its final phases, and there is a paper on this by Tony Reid in the The Journal of Chinese Medicine.
As lovers of Sichuan food and dishes will know, chillies do feature prominently in the Chinese diet, and apart from adding fire and flavour are believed by local followers of Chinese medicine to help ward off the ills caused by their damp and muggy climate.

Vanilloid receptor agonists and antagonists are mitochondrial inhibitors: How vanilloids cause non-vanilloid receptor mediated cell death

Andriani Athanasiou, Paul A. Smith, Sara Vakilpour, Nethia M. Kumaran, Amy E. Turner, Dimitra Bagiokou, Robert Layfield, David E. Ray, Andrew D. Westwell, Stephen P.H. Alexander, David A. Kendall, Dileep N. Lobo, Susan A. Watson, Artitaya Lophatanon, Kenneth A. Muir, De-an Guo and Timothy E. Bates
^aSchool of Biomedical Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK
^bMRC Applied Neuroscience Group, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK
^cWelsh School of Pharmacy, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3XF, UK
^dSchool of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK
^eSchool of Community Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK
^fShanghai Research Center for TCM Modernization, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, PR China
^gNottingham UK–China Collaboration on Complementary and Alternative Medicine, University of Nottingham, NG7 2UH, UK
Available online 2 January 2007.
Abstract

Time-lapse photomicroscopy of human H460 lung cancer cells demonstrated of the transient receptor potential V1 (TRPV1) channel agonists, (E)- capsaicin and resiniferatoxin, and the TRPV1 antagonists, capsazepine, and SB366791, were able to bring about morphological changes characteristic of apoptosis and/or necrosis. Immunoblot analysis identified immunoreactivity for the transient receptor potential V1 (TRPV1) channel in rat brain samples, but not in rat heart mitochondria or in H460 cells. In isolated rat heart mitochondria, all four ligands caused concentration-dependent decreases in oxygen consumption and mitochondrial membrane potential. (E)- Capsaicin and capsazepine evoked concentration-dependent increases and decreases, respectively, in mitochondrial hydrogen peroxide production, whilst resiniferatoxin and SB366791 were without significant effect. These data support the hypothesis that (E)- capsaicin, resiniferatoxin, capsazepine, and SB366791 are all mitochondrial inhibitors, able to activate apoptosis and/or necrosis via non-receptor mediated mechanisms, and also support the use of TRPV1 ligands as anti-cancer agents. (Jan. 2007) (Opm. Meer over chili pepers.)