Green tea and its extracts have been widely touted as
potential treatments for cancer, as well as several other diseases. But
scientists have struggled to explain how the green tea and its extracts may
work to reduce the risk of cancer or to slow the growth of cancer cells.
A
study recently published May 2014 online by the journal, Metabolomics, offers an explanation
that researchers say could open a new area of cancer-fighting research. The
study reports that EGCG, the active biologic constituent in green tea, changed
the metabolism of pancreatic cancer cells by suppressing the expression of an
enzyme associated with cancer, LDHA.
The
researchers also found an enzyme inhibitor, oxamate, which is known to reduce
LDHA activity, operated in the same manner: It also disrupted the pancreatic
cancer cells metabolic system.
"Scientists
had believed they needed a molecular mechanism to treat cancer, but this study
shows that they can change the metabolic system and have an impact on
cancer," said Wai-Nang Lee, MD, corresponding author of the study and a
Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed) lead researcher. "By
explaining how green tea's active component could prevent cancer, this study
will open the door to a whole new area of cancer research and help us
understand how other foods can prevent cancer or slow the growth of cancerous
cells."
Using
sophisticated metabolic profiling methods, the researchers found EGCG disrupted
the balance of "flux" throughout the cellular metabolic network. Flux
is the rate of turnover of molecules through a metabolic pathway. The
researchers found the EGCG disrupted this balance in the same manner that
oxamate, a known LDHA inhibitor, did.
Based
on this finding, they concluded that both EGCG and oxamate reduced the risk of
cancer by suppressing the activity of LDHA, a critical enzyme in cancer
metabolism, thereby disrupting the balance in the cancer cells metabolic
functions.
"This
is an entirely new way of looking at metabolism," said Dr. Lee. "It
is no longer a case of glucose goes in and energy comes out. Now we understand
how cancer cell metabolism can be disrupted, and we can examine how we can use
this knowledge to try to alter the course of cancer or prevent cancer."
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