New Research Finds Broccoli Molecule Kickstarts Cancer-Fighting Gene

Photo Credit - Tony Hisgett via WikiMedia Creative Commons

Last month a US research group studying WWP1, a cancer-causing gene, established that a molecule in broccoli restores an often depleted cancer-fighting gene.

The paper from #BethIsraelDeaconessMedicalCenter and the #CancerResearchInstitute shows cancer can be effectively targeted with i3C, a molecule found in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables.

The findings state that because ‘an increased expression level of… PTEN impairment is widely pervasive in various human cancers, targeting this pathway toward PTEN reactivation may represent an “Achilles heel” of broad application.’

The i3C broccoli molecule had both tumour-preventative and tumour-suppressive effects.

i3C (indole-3-carbinol) was found to rebalance and reactivate an important gene for tumour suppression called PTEN. (PTEN is a gene that in ideal genetic conditions, controls and prevents the growth of cancer.)

The group’s experiments established WWP1 produces an enzyme that causes PTEN to malfunction. It can be over- or underactive, but in both cases i3C aided in restoring normal activity and resulted in tumour cell suppression and abatement (in mice and in human tissue samples).

In hereditary predispositions to cancer, PTEN is likely to have been mutated and it is also one of the more vulnerable genes to changes that predicate malignancies.

Last month’s revelation has also re-energized academic discourse around the subject of broccoli and cancer prevention, indicated by a sharp increase in i3C studies released and even re-released.

Broccoli’s anti-cancer benefits are well known, and in part this common awareness was said to have prompted the research institute’s inclusion of i3C in the WWP1 study.

A study of i3C effects on liver cancer was published last year with researchers suggesting positive indicators of its dual potential as a preventative and treatment.

The Beth Israel research group (which is affiliated with Harvard University Medical School) are keen to further explore possibilities of i3C, and CRISPR technology, for PTEN restoration. 

They plan to study WWP1 and more potent inhibitors, and they asserted that these findings “pave the way” towards development of a tumour-suppressor reactivation approach to cancer treatment.###