Chocolates could counter cancer!

New research has shown that an ingredient found in chocolates exerts anti-cancer properties and might be used to stop cancer cell cycles.

A new study by researchers at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, has shown that an ingredient found in chocolates exerts anti-cancer properties and might be used one day to stop cancer cell cycles.

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According to the study published in the April issue of the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics pentameric procyanidin (pentamer), a natural compound found in cocoa, deactivates a number of proteins that likely work in concert to push a cancer cell to continually divide.

"There are all kinds of chemicals in the food we eat that potentially have effects on cancer cells, and a natural compound in chocolate may be one. We need to slowly develop evidence about the selectivity of these compounds to cancer, learn how they work, and sort out any issues of toxicity," said the lead author, Dr. Robert B. Dickson.

Dickson said that chocolate is the source of many possible anti-cancer compounds, but it does not mean that people who eat chocolate will either reduce their cancer risks or treat a current case.

The researchers looked at what happened when they used a purified preparation of pentamer on a variety of breast cancer cells, compared to treatment on normal breast cells. They found that the breast cancer cells stopped dividing when treated with pentamer and that all four proteins were inactivated and expression of one of the genes was reduced.

"The novel aspect here is that a pattern of several regulatory proteins is jointly deactivated, probably greatly enhancing the inhibitory effect compared to targeting any one of the proteins singly. That is also why the compound seems to work on cancer cells, irrespective of whether any of these single genes are mutated, which often happens in cancer cells," Dickson said.