Phytochemical Allicin, the Anti Colon Cancer Bioactive compound

By Kyle J. Norton


Phytochemicals may be the next potential sources of a new medicine for the treatment of diseases with little or no side effects.

Phytochemical allicin may be the next natural ingredient for the prevention and treatment of colon cancer with no side effects, some scientists suggested.

Colon is a large intestine formed part of the digestive system where water is reabsorbed and waste material is stored as feces before being removed.

Colon cancer is the medical condition characterized by the cell growth irregularly and disorderly due to change of DNA.

Most cases of colon cancer start in the cell on the surface of the inner lining of the colon. However, at the later stage, colon cancer may cause secondary metastasis, leading to cancers forming on other tissues and organs, a distance away through lymph and blood.

According to the statistics, the risk of colon cancer has been rising in younger age groups coincidently with the declining rate in older age groups.

Sadly, the proportion of cases diagnosed in individuals younger than age 50 increased from 6% in 1990 to 11% in 2013. Most of these cases (72%) occur in people who are in their 40s.

The causes of colon cancer are unknown, Some researchers suggested that the widespread colon cancer over the past few decades in the developed world probably is the result of the promotion of the Western diet that leads to obesity.

Dr. E E Frezza, the lead scientist at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Cente, in the study to examine obesity in the risk colon cancer wrote, "Obesity is a risk factor for many diseases" and "Visceral abdominal fat has been identified as the essential fat depot for pathogenetic theories that relate obesity and colon cancer".

And, "Although WC is better established as a measure of obesity than BMI, the evidence for colon cancer risk is not secure on this point; combining BMI and WC measurements would appear, at present, to be the wisest approach for colon cancer risk assessment".

The finding strongly suggested that obesity is a major risk factor of colon cancer.

Allicin is phytochemical containing sulfur in the class of organosulfur compound, found abundantly in onion and garlic.

With an aim to find a natural ingredient for the treatment of colon cancer with no side effects, researchers at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem examined the effects of allicin on cell proliferation of colon cancer cell lines HCT-116, LS174T, HT-29, and Caco-2.

Injection of allicin preparation exerted a time- and dose-dependent cytotoxic effect on these cells at concentrations ranging from 6.2 to 310 μM.

Treatment with allicin induced HCT-116 apoptotic cell death through reducing the numbers of the chromosome in the DNA in the cancer cells, increasing the function and proteins associated with cell apoptosis and decreasing the expression of proteins involved cell proliferation and migration.

Futhermore, allicin treatment also induced cell death through cancer cell degradation.

Moreover, allicin application also activated the protein which protects the normal cell against oxidative damage triggered by injury and inflammation and reduces the function of the phytochemicals in the inhibition of the HCT-116 proliferation without affecting the cancer apoptosis.

In vivo and vitro, researchers evaluated the combined effect of allicin and CPT-11 against the human colon cancer cell line LoVo.

Allicin treatment alone inhibited the growth of LoVo cells in a dose and time-dependent manner, with an IC50 value of 32.23, 10.74, 6.58 mg x L(-1) at 24 h, 48 h, and 72 h, respectively. 

The apoptosis rate of LoVo cells increased progressively as the cells were treated with increasing concentration of allicin in 24 h, while the apoptosis rate achieved peak value when the cells were treated with allicin at the concentration of 8 mg x L(-1) in 48 h. 

These results strongly suggested that low concentrations of allicin (< 4 mg x L(-1)) leads to G2/M cell cycle arrest, and higer concentrations ( > 4 mg x L(-1)) exerts G1 + G2/M cell cycle arrest in 24 h.

Compared with a single use of CPT-11, the combined use of CPT-11 and allicin (4.0, 8.0 mg x L(-1), respectively) showed increasing cytotoxicity on the LoVo cells, with IC50 of 24 h decreasing from 47.5 to 7.4 and 7.2 mg x L(-1), respectively.

Dr. Gao Y, the lead scientist, wrote in the final report, "Allicin has significant anti-proliferation effect on human colon cancer cell line LoVo by induction of apoptosis and arrestment of the cell cycle and can enhance the cytotoxicity of CPT-11 on the colon cancer LoVo cell".

Taken altogether, phytochemical Allicin may be considered a bioactive compound for the prevention and combined with the primary medicine for the treatment of colon cancer, pending to large sample and multicenter human study.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

References
(1) Allicin purified from fresh garlic cloves induces apoptosis in colon cancer cells via Nrf2 by Bat-Chen W, Golan T, Peri I, Ludmer Z, Schwartz B.(PubMed)
(2) [Allicin enhances cytotoxicity of CPT-11 to colon cancer LoVo cell in vitro]. [Article in Chinese] by Gao Y, Liu Y, Cao W, Deng Z, Liu H, Xu L, Chen X.(PubMed)
(3) Influence of obesity on the risk of developing colon cancer by E E Frezza, M S Wachtel, and M Chiriva‐Internati. (PMC)