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GLA Inhibits Her2
My apologies if this has been previously posted. I saw it today for the first time.---
CHICAGO --- Gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), a substance in evening primrose oil and several other plant oils used in herbal medicine, inhibits action of Her-2/neu, a cancer gene that is responsible for almost 30 percent of all breast cancers, Northwestern University researchers report. “Breast cancer patients with Her-2/neu-positive tumors have an aggressive form of the disease and a poor prognosis,” said Ruth Lupu, director of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Breast Cancer Translational Research Program, who led the study, published in the Nov. 2 [2005] issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Lupu is professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a researcher at The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.
Lupu and co-investigator Javier Menendez showed that treating cancer cells that overexpressed Her-2/neu with GLA suppressed protein levels of the oncogene. . . .
Menendez is research assistant professor of medicine at Feinberg and a scientist at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute.
“In our tests, . . . these findings may reveal a previously unrecognized way of influencing the poor outcome of Her-2/neu-positive cancer patients,” Lupu said.
“GLA’s inhibition of Her-2/neu works in a different manner from that of Herceptin [a drug commonly used in breast cancer treatment],” Menendez said.
“While Herceptin attempts to neutralize thousands of Her-2/neu molecules commonly found in the surface of overexpressing cancer cells, GLA would be more efficient to reduce Her-2/neu levels by preventing the transcription of few Her-2/neu gene copies,” Menendez said.
“Considering that activation and overexpression of the Her-2/neu oncogene are crucial events in the cause, progression and cell sensitivity to various treatments in breast cancer, results of the study reveal a valuable means by which an inexpensive herbal medicine might regulate breast cancer cell growth, metastasis formation and response to chemotherapies and endocrine therapies,” Lupu said. [emphasis mine]
GLA exerts selective toxic effects on cancer cells without affecting normal cells. . . .
GLA is one of two essential fatty acids – fats that are necessary for maintaining normal functioning and growth of cells, nerves, muscles and organs. Besides evening primrose oil, other sources of GLAs include borage oil and black currant seed oil.
Besides Menendez, other authors on the study were Luciano Vellon, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute; and Ramon Colomer, head of the medical oncology division at the Institut Catala d’Oncologia, Girona, Spain.
This research was supported by grant BRCTR0403141 from the Susan G. Komen Foundation and BC033538 from the Breast Cancer Program of the Department of Defense.
Excerpted from source: Northwestern University News and Information press release, November 2, 2005
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