If the cancer-inhibiting properties of red wine don't tempt you, whynot try a cosmopolitan, the cranberry-based cocktail made famous by theSex and the City girls.
Scientists have discovered a new compound in cranberries that works ina completely new way to prevent metastasis, the spread of cancer toother parts of the body.
Catherine Neto from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouthdiscovered the compound, which prevents cancer cells from breaking awayfrom the primary site and spreading to other parts of the body, aprocess called metastasis. It inhibits the molecular scissors on thecell surface that snip away at the anchors holding cancer cells inplace.
The cranberry compound inhibits the growth of human lung, colon andleukaemia cells in culture, but does not affect healthy cells. Thesefindings are published in the Journal of the Science of Food andAgriculture1.
Navindra Seeram, UCLA Centre for Human Nutrition, says that the effectof this compound is new finding, and that the newly identified compoundcould form the basis of a new cancer drug. Related compounds in redwine are more active in alcohol, and Seeram thinks the same could betrue for this compound.
1"MALDI-TOF MS characterization of proanthocyanidins from cranberryfruit (Vaccinium macrocarpon) that inhibit tumor cell growth and matrixmetalloproteinase expression in vitro" by Catherine C. Neto et. al.Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, DOI 10.1002/jsfa.2347
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