University College London Study Shows Beans Beat Cancer

Phosphoinositide 3-kinase is a key player in the development andprogression of human tumours. Scientists have been exploringphosphoinositide 3-kinase as a target for cancer treatment butinhibitors have been difficult to develop because of problems with thechemical stability and toxicity of the inhibiting substances. Now, ateam of scientists led by Dr Marco Falasca of the UCL Sackler Institutehave discovered that a natural compound, inositol pentakisphosphate,inhibits the activity of the enzyme, suggesting it could be used todevelop new treatments for cancer.

In the study, the compound was tested in mouse models and oncancer cells. Not only was it found to inhibit the growth of tumours inmice, but the phosphate also enhanced the effect of cytotoxic drugs inovarian and lung cancer cells. The findings suggest that inositolpentakisphosphate could be used to sensitize cancer cells to the actionof commonly used anti-cancer drugs.

Inositol pentakisphosphate is a non-toxic, water-solublecompound found in most legumes (such as lentils, peas and beans) and inwheat bran and nuts. These properties make the compound a promisingtherapeutic agent since conventional chemotherapy agents can be toxicto different degrees, whereas in the study, the inositol phosphateagent was found to be non-toxic even at higher concentrations.

Dr Marco Falasca of the UCL Sackler Institute says: "Our studysuggests the importance of a diet enriched in food such as beans, nutsand cereals which could help prevent cancer. Our work will now focus onestablishing whether the phosphate inhibitor can be developed into ananti-cancer agent for human therapy. We believe that inositolpentakisphosphate is a promising anti-cancer tool and we hope to bringit to clinical testing soon."