20/03/2016
Broccoli ingredient has positive influence on drug efficacy:
Certain foods can alter the activity of endogenous enzymes and thus influence the efficacy of drugs. It is well known, for example, that grapefruit has an adverse effect on a number of anti-arrhythmic and cholesterol-lowering drugs.
It contains ingredients that inhibit an endogenous enzyme responsible for the degradation of certain medications in the liver.
Consumption of grapefruit thus increases the side-effects associated with these drugs.
Until now, only a few examples existed of food ingredients that influence the efficacy of the drug to the benefit of the patient through nutrition. Scientists from ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich have recently discovered a new example of such a correlation.
The researchers struck gold when they investigated the effects of sulforaphane on human intestinal cells.
Sulforaphane is a naturally occurring ingredient in a number of cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli.
The scientists, treated various types of colon cancer cells and intestinal cells from healthy subjects with this substance in the laboratory.
The concentration used was approximately equivalent to that which reaches the intestines after consuming a meal with broccoli, and importantly, at a dose that did not itself act in killing the cells.
Journal Reference:
Melanie M. Erzinger, Cédric Bovet, Katrin M. Hecht, Sabine Senger, Pascale Winiker, Nadine Sobotzki, Simona Cristea, Niko Beerenwinkel, Jerry W. Shay, Giancarlo Marra, Bernd Wollscheid, Shana J. Sturla. Sulforaphane Preconditioning Sensitizes Human Colon Cancer Cells towards the Bioreductive Anticancer Prodrug PR-104A.
