Bromelain Kills Bile Duct Cancer Cells in Vitro

By Kyle J. Norton

Cholangiocarcinoma, also known as bile duct cancer, is a medical condition that originated from the irregular cell growth in the bile ducts.

Most cases of cholangiocarcinoma are caused by the alternation of cell DNA in the cell on the surface of the inner lining of the bile duct.

At the advanced stage, cancer cells in the bile duct may travel a distance away to infect other healthy tissues and organs through the circulation of blood and fluids.

The primary bile duct cancer has been found to spread to the regional lymph nodes and adjacent organs.

According to statistics, cholangiocarcinoma is a rare cancer that occurred approximately 2500 Americans each year compared to 5000 cases of gallbladder cancer and 15,000 cases of hepatocellular cancer.

Believe it or not, the 5-year survival rate diagnosed at early-stage extrahepatic bile duct cancer is only 30%. If cancer has spread to the regional lymph nodes, the 5-year survival rate is 24%.

The most common type of cholangiocarcinoma found in the bile duct is perihilar cholangiocarcinoma, followed by the distal extra-hepatic and then the intrahepatic forms.

Epidemiologically parasitic infections, primary sclerosing cholangitis, biliary-duct cysts, hepatolithiasis, and toxins are some prevalent factors that cause the onset of cholangiocarcinoma.

Dr. Gia L. Tyson, the lead scientist wrote, "Cholangiocarcinoma is the second most common primary hepatic malignancy after hepatocellular cancer. It accounts for approximately 10–25% of all hepatobiliary malignancies".

And, "Other less-established, potential risk factors include inflammatory bowel disease, hepatitis C virus, hepatitis B virus, cirrhosis, diabetes, obesity, alcohol drinking, tobacco smoking, and host genetic polymorphisms".

However, most people with some of the above risk factors do not develop cholangiocarcinoma. 

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 against Cholangiocarcinoma (CC), researchers investigated the anticancer effect of bromelain and papain in intra- and extrahepatic human CC cell lines.

According to the medical assays, bromelain and papain showed a similar effect inhibition of human CC cell growth, migration, invasion.

Furthermore, according to cell proliferative assays, bromelain and papain resulted in a decrease in the proliferation, invasion, and migration of CC cells.

Bromelain and papain-induced CC death by inhibiting protein associated anti-apoptotic signaling as well as their downstream signaling proteins associated with CC proliferation.

Interestingly, compared to papain, bromelain showed an overall more effective inhibition of CC.

Additional differentiation of the anti-cancer activity, researchers found that bromelain and papain have cytotoxic effects on human CC cells.

Based on the findings, Dr. Müller A the lead scientist said, "bromelain and papain have cytotoxic effects on human CC cell lines and bromelain and partially papain in comparison impair tumor growth by NFκB/AMPK signaling".
And, " Especially bromelain can evolve as a promising, potential therapeutic option that might open new insights for the treatment of human CC".

Taken altogether, bromelain may be considered supplements for the prevention and treatment of cholangiocarcinoma, pending to the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

Intake of bromelain in the form of supplements should be taken with extreme care to prevent overdose acute liver toxicity.

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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) Comparative study of antitumor effects of bromelain and papain in human cholangiocarcinoma cell lines by Müller A1, Barat S1, Chen X1, Bui KC1, Bozko P1, Malek NP1, Plentz RR. (PubMed)
(2) Risk Factors of Cholangiocarcinoma by Gia L. Tyson, MD and Hashem B. El-Serag, MD, MPH. (PMC)