by Dan Eden for viewzone

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Active Component of Grape Seed Extract
Proven Effective Against Cancer Cells

According to a December 4, 2013 report, appearing in ScienceDaily, a University of Colorado Cancer Center study that will soon be published in the journal Nutrition and Cancer describes the laboratory synthesis of the most active component of grape seed extract, B2G2, and shows this synthesized compound induces the cell death known as apoptosis in prostate cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed.

Apoptosis is the process of programmed cell death that may occur in multicellular organisms. Biochemical events lead to characteristic cell changes (morphology) and death. These changes include blebbing, cell shrinkage, nuclear fragmentation, chromatin condensation, and chromosomal DNA fragmentation. Aptosis is a natural death that happens to cells, as opposed to necrosis.

In necrosis, which is a form of traumatic cell death that results from acute cellular injury, apoptosis generally confers advantages during an organism's life cycle. For example, the differentiation of fingers and toes in a developing human embryo occurs because cells between the fingers apoptose; the result is that the digits are separate. Unlike necrosis, apoptosis produces cell fragments called apoptotic bodies that phagocytic cells are able to engulf and quickly remove before the contents of the cell can spill out onto surrounding cells and cause damage.

Between 50 and 70 billion cells die each day due to apoptosis in the average human adult. For an average child between the ages of 8 and 14, approximately 20 billion to 30 billion cells die a day.

--source Wikipedia

According to Alpna Tyagi, PhD, of the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences:

"We've shown similar anti-cancer activity in the past with grape seed extract (GSE), but now we know B2G2 is its most biologically active ingredient which can be synthesized in quantities that will allow us to study the detailed death mechanism in cancer cells."

Tyagi works in the lab of CU Cancer Center and is one of the investigators with Skaggs School of Pharmacy faculty member, Chapla Agarwal, PhD who are authoring the peer reviewed paper.

The group has spent more than a decade demonstrating the anti-cancer activity of grape seed extract (GSE) in controlled, laboratory conditions. Previous studies have shown the GSE effectiveness against many different kinds of cancer cells and have also shown its mechanism of action. But their claim that GSE kills cancer was frustrated by not knowing the precise molecule that performed this action.

"... Until recently, we didn't know which constituent of GSE created this effect. This naturally occurring compound, GSE, is a complex mixture of polyphenols and also so far it has been unclear about the biologically active constituents of GSE against cancer cells." -- Tyagi

The group eventually pinpointed B2G2 as the most active compound, but as Tyagi explained, "...It's expensive and it takes a long time to isolate B2G2 from grape seed extract."

This expense related to the isolation of B2G2 had limited the group's further exploration and delayed a statement on the anti-cancer benefits. So instead of purifying B2G2 from GSE, the group decided to synthesize it in the lab. The current study reports the success of this effort. The group now has the ability to synthesize large quantities of B2G2, quickly and inexpensively.

In the paper the group shows that the anti-cancer activity of synthesized B2G2 is similar in mechanism and degree to overall GSE effectiveness shown in previous experiments.

"Our goal all along has been a clinical trial of the biologically active compounds from GSE against human cancer. But it's difficult to earn FDA approval for a trial in which we don't know the mechanisms and possible effects of all active components. Therefore, isolating and synthesizing B2G2 is an important step because now we have the ability to conduct more experiments with the pure compound.

Ongoing work in the lab further increases our understanding of B2G2's mechanism of action that will help for the preclinical and clinical studies in the future." -- Tyagi

This is a big breakthrough in anti-cancer therapy and hopefully clinical trials will begin soon so that this treatment can save many lives. A list of known cancers that GSE can kill is outlined in these articles that appeared in ScienceDaily:

Comments?

Reader's Comments

Good news. We have long known about the effectiveness of grape seed extract and other natural cures for cancer but have always been discouraged by the medical and pharmaceutical companies who treated these compounds as "snake oil". It is encouraging to see that science is finally recognizing these as real and effective treatments for cancer. I hope that this is available on the market soon.

Thanks.

BK


I've been taking the extract for years now and have been healthy. It is good to know that I was right in my belief that it was good for me. Thanks for this news.

HH


They say the B2G2 is as effective as the grape seed extract so why would someone want to take the B2G2 if the extract is already available on-line and at health food stores? The breakthrough of the B2G2 was just important because it allows research with the FDA and NIMH so that they can make its anti-cancer properties "official". For anyone with cancer or the fear of cancer perhaps it is a good idea to use the grape seed extract now and not wait for some concentrated pharmaceutical that will likely be available with a doctor's prescription only.

Just my thoughts, anyway...

BarbJ



Possible health benefits of Grape Seed Extract

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Human case reports and results from basic research provide preliminary evidence that grape seed extract may affect heart diseases such as hypertension, high levels of blood cholesterol, cancer, platelet aggregation or inflammation. Some of these effects have been demonstrated in vivo in animal models. According to the American Cancer Society, "there is very little reliable scientific evidence available at this time that drinking red wine, eating grapes, or following the grape diet can prevent or treat cancer in people".

A polyphenol contained in grape seeds is resveratrol, which is under study for its possible effect on cancer cell growth, proliferation or apoptosis, among other potential chemopreventive mechanisms.

Other preliminary research on disease models include:

  • skin and wounds -- OPCs induced vascular endothelial growth factor and accelerated healing of injured skin in mice

  • teeth -- seed phenolics may inhibit oral sugar metabolism and retard growth of certain bacteria that cause dental caries

  • bones -- grape seed extracts enhanced bone density and strength in experimental animals

  • in vitro cancer studies -- grape seed proanthocyanidins decreased tumor numbers and reduced the malignancy of papillomas

  • ultraviolet damage -- dietary proanthocyanidins are under study for mechanisms against carcinogenesis and sunscreen protection

  • anti-viral effects

  • antibacterial properties

  • liver function

  • blood flow and fluid balance

There are 13 clinical trials as of January, 2012, assessing potential effects of grape seed extracts on human diseases, such as breast cancer, blood estrogen levels in postmenopausal women, and coronary artery disease.

One clinical trial with adults having coronary disease or cardiac risk factors concluded that: "Four weeks of muscadine grape seed supplementation in subjects with increased cardiovascular risk did not produce a statistically significant increase in brachial flow-mediated vasodilation or a significant change in other biomarkers of inflammation, lipid peroxidation, or antioxidant capacity. However, the muscadine grape seed supplement did result in a significant increase in resting brachial diameter. The clinical significance of the effect on resting diameter is not yet established."

A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials concluded that "grape seed extract appears to significantly lower systolic blood pressure and heart rate, with no effect on lipid or C-reactive protein levels."

The US National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine reported that oral administration of grape seed extract was well tolerated in people over 8 weeks. In one completed clinical trial, grape seed extract did not alleviate the hardening of breast tissue in female patients undergoing radiation therapy to treat breast cancer.