Bromelain Kills Breast Cancer Cells in Vitro

By Kyle J. Norton

Breast cancer is a medical condition characterized by irregular cell growth in the breast tissue due to the alternation of DNA.

Most cases of breast cancer at the early stage start in the cells on the surface of the inner lining of either from the milk ducts (Ductal carcinoma) or the lobules (Lobular carcinoma) that supply the ducts with milk.

At this stage, the patient may first notice as a painless lump in the breast or armpit and most often discovered by herself or her partner.

However, some patients may also experience symptoms of nipple discharge (clear or bloody)
inverted or retracted nipple, scaly or pitted skin on nipple persistent tenderness of the breast and
unusual breast pain or discomfort.

At the advanced stage, besides experiencing symptoms shared commonly with other types of cancer, patients may also notice localized bleeding and severe pain due to the oversize that press on nearby blood vessels and nerves.

According to the U.S. Breast Cancer Statistics, approximately, 1 in 8 U.S. women or 12% will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime.

In 2019, an estimated 268,600 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women in the U.S., along with 62,930 new cases of non-invasive (in situ) breast cancer.

The 5 years survival rate of breast cancer at the early stage is close to 100%.

The causes of breast cancer are not identified. Gender, aging, genetic preposition, family history, never pregnant women and smoking are some breast cancer prevalent risk.

Dr. Bhaskarapillai Binukuma, the lead scientist in the evaluation of diet risk of breast cancer wrote, "Increased consumption of total fat and saturated fat were found to be positively associated with the development of breast cancer".

And, "A moderate inverse association between consumption of n-3 fatty acids and breast cancer risk and a moderate positive association between n-6 fatty acids and breast cancer risk were observed".

In other words, if you are high-fat diet follower, your risk of breast cancer is increased substantially.

Bromelain, a proteolytic enzyme found in pineapples (Ananas comosus) has been used in traditional medicine as an inflammatory agent and to treat pains, strains, and muscle aches and pains and ease back pain and chronic joint pain, skin diseases, etc.

With an aim to find a natural ingredient for the treatment of breast cancer, researchers examined the bromelain-functionalized multiple-wall lipid-core nanocapsules (Bro-MLNC-Zn) on breast cancer cell line.

The complex used for the study was formed by a Zn-N chemical bond and a chelate with hydroxyl and carboxyl group.

In human breast cancer cells (MCF-7), the complex at the nanocapsule surface showed an antiproliferative effect by maintaining its proteolytic activity.

Interestingly, Bro-MLNC-Zn showed a reduced dose at 160-folds to exerted a similar effect compared to that of and bromelain solution.

Based on the results, researchers said, "The surface functionalization approach produced an innovative formulation having a much higher antiproliferative effect than the bromelain solution".

In order to reveal more information about bromelain anti-breast cancer activity, researchers investigated the possible synergistic cytotoxic effects of bromelain in combination with cisplatin on MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells.

Human MDA-MB-231 cells used in the study were treated with different concentrations (0.24-9.5 µM) of bromelain or cisplatin alone, as well as four different combinations.

According to the results of tested assays, single-agent treatment with cisplatin or bromelain decreases the viability of the MDA-MB-231 cells at 24 and 48 h in a dose- and time-dependent manner.

All combinations displayed synergistic effects against MDA-MB-231 cells at 48 h, particularly with combination 1 (bromelain 2 µM + cisplatin 1.5 µM).

Interestingly, combination 1 also was found to induce breast cancer cells death with a significant decrease in the levels of several apoptotic proteins but an increase of levels of the pro-apoptotic proteins compared with bromelain.

Taken altogether, bromelain used alone or combined with other herbal medicines may be considered supplements for the prevention and treatment of breast cancer, pending to the confirmation of the larger sample size 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.

Sources
(1) Bromelain-Functionalized Multiple-Wall Lipid-Core Nanocapsules: Formulation, Chemical Structure and Antiproliferative Effect Against Human Breast CancerCells (MCF-7) by Oliveira CP1,2, Prado WA3, Lavayen V3, Büttenbender SL3, Beckenkamp A4, Martins BS3, Lüdtke DS3, Campo LF3, Rodembusch FS3, Buffon A4, Pessoa A Jr5, Guterres SS4, Pohlmann AR. (PubMed)
(2) Combination of cisplatin and bromelain exerts synergistic cytotoxic effects against breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 in vitro by Pauzi AZ1, Yeap SK2, Abu N1, Lim KL3, Omar AR2, Aziz SA4, Chow AL1, Subramani T1, Tan SG1, Alitheen NB. (PubMed)
(3) Dietary fat and risk of breast cancer by Bhaskarapillai Binukumar1 and Aleyamma Mathew. (PMC)