An ingredient found in broccoli and Brussels sprouts suppresses tumor growth

News

Moby publicly apologizes to Natalie Portman on Instagram

Moby publicly apologized to Natalie Portman on Saturday, days after the actress disputed Moby's recollection of their alleged relationship in his new book "Then It Fell Apart." The 53-year-old musician wrote that he met Portman at one of his concerts.

It has long been known that broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables are good for health. The plant family - which also includes cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and kale - contains a molecule that disables the gene known as WWP1. This gene is associated with many of the human cancers. New research proves that the ingredient found in broccoli suppresses tumor growth in cancer-prone laboratory animals. The leader of the experiment was Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi, director of the Cancer Center and Cancer Research Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

“We have found a new important player that promotes the development of cancer. This enzyme can be inhibited with a natural ingredient found in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables,” Pandolfi said. “This gene turns out to be the Achilles heel that we can target with therapeutic options.”

PTEN is a typical tumor suppressor in cancer. Pandolfi and colleagues identified the molecules and compounds that regulate PTEN activation. The team conducted a series of experiments on cancer-prone mice and human cells and found that a gene called WWP1 produces an enzyme that inactivates the tumor-suppressive effects of PTEN. By analyzing the physical form of the enzyme, chemists on the research team realized that a small molecule called indole-3-carbinol (I3C) could be the key to suppressing the carcinogenic effects of WWP1. The scientists found that the ingredient naturally occurring in broccoli inactivated WWP1 and activated the tumor-suppressive power of PTEN.

Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that you can cure cancer with broccoli. The first author Dr. Yu-Ru Lee, a member of the Pandolfi lab, notes that you would have to eat almost 3 kilograms of Brussels sprouts a day - and uncooked at that - to benefit from the potential benefitFighting cancerto benefit. For this reason, the Pandolfi team is looking for other ways to use this new knowledge. The team plans to further study the function of WWP1 to ultimately develop more effective WWP1 inhibitors.