Posted on 02/21/2015 11:40:43 AM PST by Tired of Taxes
A Rutgers nutritional scientist and two cancer biologists at New York City’s Hunter College have found that an ingredient in extra-virgin olive oil kills a variety of human cancer cells without harming healthy cells.
The ingredient is oleocanthal, a compound that ruptures a part of the cancerous cell, releasing enzymes that cause cell death.
Paul Breslin, professor of nutritional sciences in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, and David Foster and Onica LeGendre of Hunter College, report that oleocanthal kills cancerous cells in the laboratory by rupturing vesicles that store the cell’s waste.
The findings are published in Molecular and Cellular Oncology.
Scientists knew that oleocanthal killed some cancer cells, but no one really understood how this occurred. Breslin believed that oleocanthal might be targeting a key protein in cancer cells that triggers a programmed cell death, known as apoptosis, and worked with Foster and Legendre to test his hypothesis.
“We needed to determine if oleocanthal was targeting that protein and causing the cells to die,” Breslin said.
After applying oleocanthal to the cancer cells, Foster and LeGendre discovered that the cancer cells were dying very quickly — within 30 minutes to an hour. Since programmed cell death takes between 16 and 24 hours, the scientists realized that something else had to be causing the cancer cells to break down and die.
Pancreatic cancer (PC3) cells treated with an increasing dose of olive-oil ingredent (-)-Oleocanthal (OC) in the absence of serum (fetal bovine serum). After 30 minutes of treatment, 100% of cells have been detached from the plate. Survival and growth of PC3 cells depend on being attached, so loss of attachment and the rapid rounding of cells seen in 20 micromolar (20µM) concentration of OC indicate these cancer cells are dead. (credit: Dr. Onica LeGendre)
LeGendre, a chemist, provided the answer: The cancer cells were being killed by their own enzymes. The oleocanthal was puncturing the vesicles inside the cancer cells that store the cell’s waste. These vesicles, known as lysosomes are larger in cancer cells than in healthy cells, and they contain a lot of waste. “Once you open one of those things, all hell breaks loose,” Breslin said.
But oleocanthal didn’t harm healthy cells, the researchers found. It merely stopped their life cycles temporarily — “put them to sleep,” Breslin said. After a day, the healthy cells resumed their cycles.
The researchers say the logical next step is to go beyond laboratory conditions and show that oleocanthal can kill cancer cells and shrink tumors in living animals. “We also need to understand why it is that cancerous cells are more sensitive to oleocanthal than non-cancerous cells,” Foster said.
It will also be interesting to explore the implications of this study for research suggesting beneficial effects of ingesting fullerenes dissolved in olive oil.
According to the World Health Organization’s World Cancer Report 2014, there were more than 14 million new cases of cancer in 2012 and more than 8 million deaths.
Sounds like a wonderful time.
Of course, if it’s Extra Virgin, be sure it wasn’t grown in a predominantly muzzie country.
Seagate 100% Extra Virgin Olive Oil contains very high levels of Oleic Acid (11 grams per 14 gram serving), a monounsaturated fatty acid that can reduce the risk of heart disease. This benefit is so strong that the FDA, which normally prohibits any disease claim for any food or health food product, allows this statement on olive oil labels - “Limited and not conclusive scientific evidence suggests that eating 2 tablespoons (23 grams) of olive oil daily may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease due to the monounsaturated fat in olive oil.”
We know that serum containing face creams and cleansers such as oil of olay reduce wrinkles and evidence of aging......... they told me on a commercial
Ancient greeks used olive oil to ‘wash’ their faces... then removed the oil with wooden sticks... If this works - I’ll bet it works with skin cancer...
#55 & 56: I ordered these today.
Olive Leaf Extract 700 mg 90 Capsules by Nova Nutritions
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QH42GKA?psc=1
These pills are olive oil extracts with the key ingredient that helps various ailments. http://www.lef.org/magazine/2013/6/Unexpected-Benefits-of-Olive-Leaf-Extract/Page-01
I will get back to you to say it worked when I am 100 years old : )
I have a mark that I’m worried might be skin cancer. It wouldn’t hurt to try some extra virgin olive oil, I guess...
That's assuming I'm still around. lol
I think I am going to try the Kirkland organic oil. They did a test on it some years back and it was the only imported oil that meet extra virgin standards. I don’t know how much oleocanthal it has in it, but it comes from Italy where oleocanthal content is known to be high. California oil was generally low in content according to that paper I linked up thread. Seagate sounds good, but there is no external scrutiny that I could find.
http://www.oliveoilexcellence.com/wp-content/themes/shopperpress/thumbs/olive-oil-final-071410-.pdf
Ummmm, SEE A DOCTOR... modern medicine is just perfect for that type of thing...
Oh, I definitely will, believe me.
Seagate’s oil is new to market, but all of their other products are top notch. I may try the Kirkland as well.
I’ll keep an eye on Seagate, they just might have something extraordinary. Just would like to see some type of analysis.
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