Fatty Acids effect on HER2: a must read

[al from Canada]

Hello all,
I have attached a great link for everthing you need to know about fatty acid supplementation (flaxseed, borage, evening primrose, olive OILS.) Very easly to read, including a chart of all the FA oils and the various % between them.

http://www.pjonline.com/pdf/cpd/pj_2...fattyacids.pdf

Also, here is a summary from another article:


Effect of -Linolenic Acid on the Transcriptional Activity of the Her-2/neu (erbB-2) Oncogene



Javier A. Menendez, Luciano Vellon, Ramon Colomer, Ruth Lupu

Affiliations of authors: Department of Medicine, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute, Evanston, IL (JAM, LV, RL); Department of Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL (JAM, LV, RL); Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, Chicago, IL (JAM, RL); Medical Oncology, Institut Catala d'Oncologia, Hospital Universitari Dr. Josep Trueta, Girona, Spain (RC)

Correspondence to: Ruth Lupu, PhD, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute, 1001 University Place, Evanston, IL 60201 (e-mail: r-lupu@northwestern.edu ) or Javier A. Menendez, PhD, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute, 1001 University Place, Evanston, IL 60201 (e-mail: jmenendez@enh.org ). The -6 polyunsaturated fatty acid -linolenic acid (GLA; 18:3n-6), which is found in several plant oils and is used as an herbal medicine, has antitumor activity in vitro. We examined the effect of GLA on the expression of the Her-2/neu (erbB-2) oncogene, which is involved in development of numerous types of human cancer. Flow cytometric and immunoblotting analyses demonstrated that GLA treatment substantially reduced Her-2/neu protein levels in the Her-2/neu–overexpressing cell lines BT-474, SK-Br3, and MDA-MB-453 (breast cancer), SK-OV3 (ovarian cancer), and NCI-N87 (gastrointestinal tumor derived). GLA exposure led to a dramatic decrease in Her-2/neu promoter activity and a concomitant increase in the levels of polyomavirus enhancer activator 3 (PEA3), a transcriptional repressor of Her-2/neu, in these cell lines. In transient transfection experiments, a Her-2/neu promoter bearing a PEA3 site–mutated sequence was not subject to negative regulation by GLA in Her-2/neu–overexpressing cell lines. Concurrent treatments of Her-2/neu–overexpressing cancer cells with GLA and the anti–Her-2/neu antibody trastuzumab led to synergistic increases in apoptosis and reduced growth and colony formation.

Regards,
Al

[Christine MH-UK]

I had read the Menendez article, but the article that explained the fatty acids, what they do in the body, and the pathways was great. One thing I found interesting was that the British omega 6 to omega 3 ratio at 5.7:1 is so much lower than the figures I have seen for the U.S., probably because rapeseed (canola) is a more common oil and no part of the UK is very far from the coast. We still have a cancer problem, but maybe due more to widespread vitamin D deficiencies (the UK is on the same latitude as Alaska), alcohol overconsumption and vegetable underconsumption.

I found a chart that is even more comprehensive than the one you provided:
http://www.queenhill.demon.co.uk/seedoils/omegas.pdf