Saturday, December 12, 2009

Xanthohumol may help in preventing prostate cancer....

We know that Xanthohumol is a Xanthone (phenylated chalcone or Phenylflavonoid). Xanthohumol was initially detected in an extract(series of Humulones) from Hops (Humulus lupulus) and is present in beer. This prenylated flavonoid has been shown to be a potent bioactive compound. Xanthohumol has been shown to have antiproliferative and cytotoxic effects in human cancer cell lines. It has also been displayed to inhibit diacyl glycerol acetyl transferase (DGAT) and human P450 enzymes. Xanthohumol inhibits the expression of HIF-1a and VEGF under hyposic conditions.

Higher antioxidant activity is reported for prenylchalcones than for prenyl flavanones in the Cu2+- mediated oxidation of LDL, suggesting a relation between structure and function. Also, many chalcones suppress tumor promotion more effectively than flavonoids themselves.

Quantities of xanthohumol found in Hop are to small to have any biological effects under normal consumption amounts. Some of the researchers also claims that it has got anti-HIV-1 activity too.

Now researchers from German Cancer Research Center, in Heidelberg, Germany, have come up with more interesting result, i.e., Xanthohumol may aid in preventing prostate cancer. As per the claim by the authors, the compound blocks the effects of the male hormone testosterone.

Studies to date have shown that xanthohumol blocks the action of estrogen by binding to its receptor, which may lead to prevention of breast cancer. Since testosterone receptors act similarly to that of estrogen — by binding, then stimulating hormone-dependent effects, such as gene expression and cell growth — the researchers examined whether xanthohumol might not only block the effects of estrogen, but also of the male hormone androgen. Xanthohumol prevented the receptor from translocating to the cell nucleus, thus inhibiting its potential to stimulate the secretion of PSA and other hormone-dependent effects.

The interesting part of their research is the molecular modeling results, which showed that xanthohumol directly binds to the androgen receptor structure. The researchers suggest that this compound may have beneficial effects in animals — when they measured the anti-androgenic potential of xanthohumol in a rat model, they found that although xanthohumol was not able to prevent an increase in prostate weight after testosterone treatment, it could reduce testosterone-increased seminal vesicle weight.

As per the claim by the researchers the prostate weights were not changed, xanthohumol still reduced the effects of hormone signaling, such as gene expression, measured in the prostate tissue...

Ref : http://mct.aacrjournals.org/content/1/11/959.full

5 comments:

  1. chalcones are simple but amazing compounds with wide range of biological activity. Thanks for nice info about xanthohumol and its chemoprevention against prostate cancer

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  2. after prostate cancer or enlargement the testosterone level increases but the prostate cancer aetiology is not due to the increased amount of testosterone.The information here seems to be a biased one mentioned here.After all what is the significance to decrease the effect of testosterone ? If it is showing such mechanism then can we consume xanthohumol to become impotent loosing all the normal sexual appetite? Or can we administrate this drug to such a patient who has been convicted of repeated crime of rape? so consuming it I dont think that this may help in any way prevent prostrate cancer .regarding the cure of HIV-1 it is still a doubt .when and upon whom and upon how many HIV patients the clinical trial has been conducted? So please provide the concrete proof about the utility .

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  3. Hello Subransu sekhar,

    I have written this blog on the conclusions based on the claims by the researchers, so why can't you write a mail to the lead researcher, whose name and e-mail ID are Clarissa Gerhauser and "c.gerhauser@dkfz.de" respectively. I hope you will be able to get answers from them...all the best..

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  4. Hey thanks for sharing on this blog. its really good to see that you are sharing some good post on cancer and it treatment. Keep posting on it.

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