Grape Seed Extract Kills Laboratory Leukemia Cells, Proving Value Of Natural Compounds

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Grape Seed Extract Kills Laboratory Leukemia Cells, Proving Value Of Natural

Compounds

31 Dec 2008

An extract from grape seeds forces laboratory leukemia cells to commit cell

suicide, according to researchers from the University of Kentucky. They found

that within 24 hours, 76 percent of leukemia cells had died after being exposed

to the extract.

The investigators, who report their findings in the January 1, 2009, issue of

Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer

Research, also teased apart the cell signaling pathway associated with use of

grape seed extract that led to cell death, or apoptosis. They found that the

extract activates JNK, a protein that regulates the apoptotic pathway.

While grape seed extract has shown activity in a number of laboratory cancer

cell lines, including skin, breast, colon, lung, stomach and prostate cancers,

no one had tested the extract in hematological cancers nor had the precise

mechanism for activity been revealed.

" These results could have implications for the incorporation of agents such as

grape seed extract into prevention or treatment of hematological malignancies

and possibly other cancers, " said the study's lead author, Xianglin Shi, Ph.D.,

professor in the Graduate Center for Toxicology at the University of Kentucky.

" What everyone seeks is an agent that has an effect on cancer cells but leaves

normal cells alone, and this shows that grape seed extract fits into this

category, " he said.

Shi adds, however, that the research is not far enough along to suggest that

people should eat grapes, grape seeds, or grape skin in excess to stave off

cancer. " This is very promising research, but it is too early to say this is

chemo-protective. "

Hematological cancers - leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma - accounted for an

estimated 118,310 new cancer cases and almost 54,000 deaths in 2006, ranking

these cancers as the fourth leading cause of cancer incidence and death in the

U.S.

Given that epidemiological evidence shows that eating vegetables and fruits

helps prevent cancer development, Shi and his colleagues have been studying

chemicals known as proanthocyanidins in fruits that contribute to this effect.

Shi has found that apple peel extract contains these flavonoids, which have

antioxidant activity, and which cause apoptosis in several cancer cell lines but

not in normal cells. Based on those studies, and findings from other researchers

that grape seed extract reduces breast tumors in rats and skin tumors in mice,

they looked at the effect of the compound in leukemia cells.

Using a commercially available grape seed extract, Shi exposed leukemia cells to

the extract in different doses and found the marked effect in causing apoptosis

in these cells at one of the higher doses.

They also discovered that the extract does not affect normal cells, although

they don't know why.

The researchers then used pharmacologic and genetic approaches to determine how

the extract induced apoptosis. They found that the extract strongly activated

the JNK pathway, which then led to up-regulation of Cip/p21, which controls the

cell cycle.

They checked this finding by using an agent that inhibited JNK, and found that

the extract was ineffective. Using a genetic approach - silencing the JNK gene -

also disarmed grape seed extract's lethal attack in leukemia cells.

" This is a natural compound that appears to have relatively important

properties, " Shi said.

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