News From American Chemical Society

Main Category: Prostate / Prostate Cancer
Also Included In: Nutrition / Diet;  Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses;  Respiratory / Asthma
Article Date: 27 Sep 2007 - 3:00 PDT

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Pomegranate juice: Tart, trendy, and targeted on prostate cancer cells

Researchers in California are reporting new evidence explaining pomegranate juice's mysterious beneficial effects in fighting prostate cancer. In a study in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication, Navindra Seeram and colleagues have found that the tart, trendy beverage also uses a search-and-destroy strategy to target prostate cancer cells.

In previous research, Seeram's group found that pomegranate juice consumption had a beneficial effect for prostate cancer patients with rising prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. Such increases in PSA signal that the cancer is progressing, "doubling time" a key indicator of prognosis. Men whose PSA levels double in a short period are more likely to die from their cancer. Pomegranate juice increased doubling times by almost fourfold.

In the new study, they researchers discovered evidence in laboratory experiments that pomegranate works in a "seek and destroy" fashion. On consumption, ellagitannins (ET), antioxidants abundant in pomegranate juice, break down to metabolites known as urolithins. The researchers showed that the urolithins concentrate at high levels in prostate tissue after being given orally and by injection to mice with prostate cancer. They also showed that urolithins inhibited the growth of human prostate cancer cells in cell culture.

"The chemopreventive potential of pomegranate ellagitannins and localization of their bioactive metabolites in mouse prostate tissue suggest that pomegranate may play a role in prostate cancer treatment and chemoprevention," the researchers state, recommending further clinical studies with pomegranate and prostate cancer patients.

ARTICLE
"Pomegranate Ellagitannin-Derived Metabolites Inhibit Prostate Cancer Growth and Localize to the Mouse Prostate Gland"

CONTACT:
Navindra P. Seeram, Ph.D.
UCLA Center for Human Nutrition
David Geffen School of Medicine
University of California at Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA 90095

Drug-resistant tuberculosis rises, but new treatments in the pipeline

An arsenal of promising new medications, vaccines, and diagnostic tests are moving toward the global battlefield that pits medicine against drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB), which is claiming a terrible toll, particularly in HIV-infected individuals, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News, ACS' weekly newsmagazine.

In the cover feature, C&EN senior correspondent Ann Thayer and assistant editor Carmen Drahl describe far-ranging efforts underway to develop new TB diagnostic tests and treatments. For years, conventional treatments for TB had slowed the spread of the disease, but the emergence of new drug-resistant strains has reduced the effectiveness of those medications. Researchers are developing more accurate diagnostic tests, new drugs to fight multidrug resistant strains, and ones that are more compatible with individuals who are undergoing treatment for HIV. Scientists are also developing more effective vaccines, including those that might show promise for both preventing and treating the disease, Thayer notes.

"In the past five years or so, the TB drug pipeline has shifted from nearly empty to having about 30 compounds under investigation; several are in early clinical testing," Thayer writes.

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The American Chemical Society -- the world's largest scientific society -- is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

Source: Michael Woods
American Chemical Society

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