Diet and Cancer

[Guest guest]

We all know that some foods are very important in our lives.

1. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2005;45(6):425-45.Lectins as bioactive plant proteins: a potential in cancer treatment.De Mejia EG, Prisecaru VI.Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Illinois atUrbana-Champaign, Chicago, IL, USA. edemejia@...Plant lectins, a unique group of proteins and glycoproteins with potentbiological activity, occur in foods like wheat, corn, tomato, peanut, kidneybean, banana, pea, lentil, soybean, mushroom, rice, and potato. Thus,dietary intakes by humans can be significant. Many lectins resist digestion,survive gut passage, and bind to gastrointestinal cells and/or enter thecirculation intact, maintaining full biological activity. Several lectinshave been found to possess anticancer properties in vitro, in vivo, and inhuman case studies; they are used as therapeutic agents, preferentiallybinding to cancer cell membranes or their receptors, causing cytotoxicity,apoptosis, and inhibition of tumor growth. These compounds can becomeinternalized into cells, causing cancer cell agglutination and/oraggregation. Ingestion of lectins also sequesters the available body pool ofpolyamines, thereby thwarting cancer cell growth. They also affect theimmune system by altering the production of various interleukins, or byactivating certain protein kinases. Lectins can bind to ribosomes andinhibit protein synthesis. They also modify the cell cycle by inducingnon-apoptotic G1-phase accumulation mechanisms, G2/M phase

cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, and can activate the caspase cascade. Lectins can also downregulate telomerase activity and inhibit angiogenesis. Although lectins seem to have great potential as anticancer agents, further research is still needed and should include a genomic and proteomic approach.Publication Types:ReviewPMID: 16183566 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

I wish you all the bestAubrey