By Jimmy Downs

Sunday Amy 11, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- A new study published recently in Pharmacognosy Magazine suggests some dietary supplements can be used as chemotherapeutics to effectively treat breast cancer.

The study led by M.K. Khan and colleagues from Integral University in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India shows that quercetin, 1-caffeoylquinic acid and guggulsterone can effectively inhibit nuclear factor kappaB (NF-κB) precursor protein p105.

NF-kappaB regulates the expression of genes that control cell proliferation and cell survival.  In many types of tumors including breast cancer, NF-kappaB is somehow overproduced and constitutively active.  Active NF-kappaB promotes the expression of genes that keep the cell proliferating and prevent the cell from normally dying via apoptosis in the case of cancers.  That is, controlling NF-kappaB or its precursor can help control breast cancer.

In the current study, nine phytochemicals namely "boswellic acid, 1-caffeoylquinic acid, ellagic acid, emodin, genistein, guggulsterone, quercetin, resveratrol, and sylibinin" were tested for their binding affinity to the nuclear factor- kappaB (NF-κB) precursor protein p105, which is known to be over-expressed in breast cancer.

The researchers found the order of the binding affinity of the phytochemicals with p105 as follows:  Quercetin and 1-caffeoylquinic acid >> guggulsterone > sylibinin > emodin > resveratrol > genistein > boswellic acid > ellagic acid.

The results suggest that quercetin, 1-caffeoylquinic acid and guggulsterone may be used to protect against the development of breast cancer as they can inhibit NF-kappaB precursor protein p105 to prevent the misregulation of NF-kappaB in the cancer cell proliferation.

Another study published in 2012 in Molecular Medicine Reports shows that quercetin inhibits human breast cancer cell proliferation and induces apoptosis in cultured MCF-7 human breast cancer cells.

In the study, J. Duo and colleagues from Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital in Tianjin, China tested quercetin in different doses in breast cancer cell cultures to see how effectively this dietary supplement may inhibit the proliferation of breast cancer cells.

The researchers found quercetin in 50 to 200 um can effectively inhibit the proliferation of breast cancer cells and also induce apoptosis after a 48-hour treatment.