THE ESSENTIAL
- In the context of anticancer chemotherapy, oleanic acid, found in Aglianico fermented red grape marc, would be capable of influencing the choice of the DNA repair pathway.
- Administering oleanic acid in combination with camptothecin could also reduce the amount of medication needed and increase the effectiveness of treatment.
- These data are part of a new research program focused on the identification of new molecules derived from natural extracts for the treatment of cancer.
“Targeting DNA damage response pathways represents one of the main approaches to cancer therapy. However, defects in their mechanisms, observed in various tumors, can also promote tumor progression and resistance to treatment, which negatively impacts patient survival. Therefore, the identification of new molecules from natural extracts could provide a powerful source of new compounds for cancer treatment strategies. This is what scientists from the Sbarro Institute, Temple University and the Instituto Nazionale Tumori Fondazione Pascale (Italy) wrote in a study published in the journal International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
Oleanolic acid from grapes could increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy
As part of this research, they wanted to study the role of oleanolic acid (AO), identified in Aglianico fermented red grape marc, in the modulation of DNA damage response pathways in response to camptothecin (CPT), a topoisomerase I inhibitor. Their analysis showed that this compound could influence the choice of DNA repair pathway during camptothecin treatment, by shifting the repair process from DNA conversion genes. Additionally, oleanic acid acts as an additive compound to camptothecin, reducing the required concentration of the chemotherapeutic drug compared to camptothecin alone. “Our data demonstrate that the combination of sublethal concentrations of oleanic acid and camptothecin enhances the effectiveness of topoisomerase I inhibition.”
Cancer: “the potential of natural extracts as a source of molecules for therapy”
“This is an important discovery for our group, which highlights the potential of natural extracts as a source of molecules for cancer therapy,” said Antonio Giordano, who led the work. This discovery is not the team’s first. Indeed, they had highlighted the potential of capsaicin, an active component of chili pepper, to improve the treatment of mesothelioma, a rare malignant tumor of the pleura which surrounds the lungs. Scientists also investigated the role of Cyclin-dependent kinase 9 (CDK9) in oncology and a genetic target for reducing blood vessel growth in glioblastoma tumors.
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