Scientists have discovered a possible mechanism for the anti-cancer activity of resveratrol, the compound found in red wine and thought to be responsible for the drink’s widely reported health benefits, writes Wai Lang Chu. The discovery has important implications for increasing the effectiveness of cancer therapy, with some clinical trials using resveratrol already showing encouraging results. But it could also explain how resveratrol helps to control atherosclerosis, heart disease, arthritis, and autoimmune disorders, say the researchers. Marty Mayo, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Virginia, and his team report that the compound helps to starve cancer cells by inhibiting the action of a key protein that feeds them. The protein, called nuclear factor- kappa B (NF-kB), is found in the nucleus of all cells and activates genes responsible for cell survival. “We used physiologically-relevant doses of resveratrol and found dramatic effects on human cancer cells,” said Mayo. The findings, which are published on the online edition of the Journal of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) demonstrated that cancer cells treated with resveratrol died because they became sensitive to a compound called Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNFa). The researchers found that resveratrol initiated a reaction in the NF-kB molecule that caused the cancer cells essentially to self-destruct in a process called apoptosis.
