Cabbage compound protects healthy tissue from
radiation damage
A team of US
researchers has discovered that an anti-cancer compound present in cruciferous
vegetables, such as cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli, also protects rodents
from lethal doses of radiation.
The compound, called
3,3'-diindolylmethane, and known more simply as "DIM," is already
shown to be safe in humans, and so the researchers expect it could serve as a
shield to protect healthy tissue in human cancer patients from damage by radiation therapy, or lessen its side effects.
The team, from Georgetown University
Medical Center (GUMC) in Washington, DC, reports its findings in the latest
online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences (PNAS).
One of the researchers, Eliot Rosen,
a professor of oncology, biochemistry and cell and molecular biology, and
radiation medicine at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, a part
of GUMC, says:
"DIM has been studied as a
cancer prevention agent for years, but this is the first indication that DIM
can also act as a radiation protector."
For their study, the team exposed
rats to lethal doses of gamma rays and then gave some of them a daily injection
of DIM for 2 weeks, while leaving the others untreated.
Prof. Rosen, who describes the
results as "stunning," says:
"All of the untreated rats
died, but well over half of the DIM-treated animals remained alive 30 days
after the radiation exposure."
Protection from treatment's side effects
The team also tested the treatment
on mice, with the same results. In addition, they found the treated mice showed
less loss of red blood cells, white blood cells and blood platelets, which are
typical side effects in cancer patients who have radiation therapy.
The findings suggest DIM could have
two uses: it could protect healthy tissue in cancer patients undergoing
radiotherapy, and it could also offer protection in the event of a nuclear
disaster.
When they treated the rats, the team
found it did not matter whether they started the treatment 24 hours before, or
24 hours after radiation exposure, DIM's protective effect was the same.
Georgetown University has filed a
patent for using DIM and DIM-related compounds as protection against radiation.
Grants from the US Public Health
Service, the Center for Drug Discovery at Georgetown University, and other
Georgetown funding helped finance the study.
In 2006, Prof. Rosen and his team
published a study where they showed another compound also found in cruciferous
vegetables, called I3C, improves DNA repair in
cells, which in turn helps stop them becoming cancerous.
Written by Catharine Paddock PhD
Copyright: Medical News
Today
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