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Primrose oil component cuts levels of cancer-causing gene Her-2/neu
Primrose oil component cuts levels of cancer-causing gene
Her-2/neu
November 02, 2005
Gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), a substance in evening primrose oil
and several other plant oils used in herbal medicine, inhibits
action of Her-2/neu, a cancer gene that is responsible for almost
30 percent of all breast cancers, Northwestern University
researchers report.
"Breast cancer patients with Her-2/neu-positive tumors have an
aggressive form of the disease and a poor prognosis," said Ruth
Lupu, director of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Breast Cancer
Translational Research Program, who led the study, published in the
Nov. 2 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Lupu is professor of medicine at Northwestern University
Feinberg School of Medicine and a researcher at The Robert H. Lurie
Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.
Lupu and co-investigator Javier Menendez showed that treating
cancer cells that overexpressed Her-2/neu with GLA not only
suppressed protein levels of the oncogene, but also caused a 30- to
40-fold increased response in breast cancer cells to the drug
HerpetinTM (trastuzumab), a monoclonal antibody that is used for
the treatment of many women with breast cancer.
Menendez is research assistant professor of medicine at Feinberg
and a scientist at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Research
Institute.
"In our tests, treating the cancer cell lines with both GLA and
Herceptin led to a synergistic increase in apoptosis [cell death]
and reduced cancer growth. Therefore, although further studies are
necessary before GLA can enter clinical trials, these findings may
reveal a previously unrecognized way of influencing the poor
outcome of Her-2/neu-positive cancer patients," Lupu said.
"GLA's
inhibition of Her-2/neu works in a different manner from that of
Herceptin," Menendez said.
"While Herceptin attempts to neutralize thousands of Her-2/neu
molecules commonly found in the surface of overexpressing cancer
cells, GLA would be more efficient to reduce Her-2/neu levels by
preventing the transcription of few Her-2/neu gene copies,"
Menendez said. "Considering that activation and overexpression of
the Her-2/neu oncogene are crucial events in the cause, progression
and cell sensitivity to various treatments in breast cancer,
results of the study showed reveal a valuable means by which an
inexpensive herbal medicine might regulate might regulate breast
cancer cell growth, metastasis formation and response to
chemotherapies and endocrine therapies," Lupu said.
GLA exerts selective toxic effects on cancer cells without
affecting normal cells.
Menendez's earlier research showed that
supplementation with GLA sensitizes breast cancer cells to some
chemotherapeutic drugs, such as paclitaxel (TaxolTM), docetaxel
(TaxotereTM) and vinorelbine (NavelbineTM). Lupu and Menendez
recently demonstrated that GLA also enhances the efficacy of
anti-estrogens, such as tamoxifen and FaslodexTM.
"Since overexpression of Her-2/neu generally confers resistance
to chemo- and endocrine therapies, our current findings can explain
why GLA increases the efficacy of breast cancer treatments,"
Menendez said.
GLA is one of two essential fatty acids - fats that are
necessary for maintaining normal functioning and growth of cells,
nerves, muscles and organs.
Besides evening primrose oil, other
sources of GLAs include borage oil and black current seed oil.
Besides Menendez, other authors on the study were Luciano
Vellon, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute; and
Ramon Colomer, head of the medical oncology division at the
Institut Catala d'Oncologia, Girona, Spain.
Northwestern University
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