An investigation by the Department of Toxicology of the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (Cinvestav), of the National Polytechnic Institute, showed that a compound of cuachalalate (a plant used in traditional Mexican medicine as a gastroprotective and auxiliary agent in vascular diseases) promotes death of tumor cells, while stimulating the immune system to deal with different types of cancer.
Libia Vega Loyo, who leads the investigation, maintained that the benefits of this plant are due to its content of anacardic 6-pentadecyl salicylic acid, which promotes the programmed death (apoptosis) of tumor cells without affecting normal ones.
Currently, the method used to kill diseased cells is through inflammation or necrosis, which causes significant tissue damage, as well as side effects in cancer treatment. On the other hand, 6-pentadecyl salicylic acid does not kill healthy cells, it only induces them to arrest proliferation; that is, they expand more slowly.
The researcher explained that this compound is capable of stimulating the immune system and it was observed how 6-pentadecyl salicylic acid has a very specific phosphorylation function on certain proteins or kinases, whose role is to signal macrophages (an important component of the immune) to be more reactive and can respond quickly to challenges that arise; that is, they induce the death of the tumor cell and activate the immune system to attack more efficiently.
Vega Loyo explained that the study was carried out on models with breast cancer and invitro, in leukemia cell lines and cells from the gastrointestinal tract, specifically the stomach; In addition, the line of research has also carried out several preliminary studies in which 6-pentadecyl salicylic acid is combined with other antineoplastics, where a decrease in the toxicity of chemotherapy was observed and the same pharmacological efficiency of tumor reduction was observed.
The research, published in Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology Y molecules, exposes that antineoplastics such as taxol, a drug used in breast cancer treatments, has the disadvantage of being very toxic to the immune system, by killing bone marrow cells and reducing the number of white blood cells, “which leaves to the immunosuppressed patient, very susceptible to infections, the most serious consequence of all chemotherapies”.
In contrast, cuachalalate does not do violence to immune cells, so there are no significant changes such as an inflammatory or allergic response, making it a very safe compound, the researcher pointed out.
At the moment, preclinical tests are being carried out on the joint use of the anacardic acids of cuachalalate with other classic antineoplastic agents used in the clinic, such as carboplatin, cisplatin, taxol, and 5-fluorouracil; In addition, they have found an important synergy with carboplatin to reduce breast tumors more efficiently.
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