Homeopathy + Breast Cancer
Cytotoxic effects of ultra-diluted remedies on breast cancer cells Authors: Moshe Frenkel, Bal Mukund Mishra, Subrata Sen, Peiying Yang, Alison Pawlus, Luis Vence, Aimee Leblanc, Lorenzo Cohen, Pratip Banerji, Prasanta Banerji Affiliations: Integrative Medicine Program-Unit 145, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030-4009, USA. [email protected] Pages: 395-403 Abstract: The use of ultra-diluted natural products in the management of disease and treatment of cancer has generated a lot of interest and controversy. We conducted an in vitro study to determine if products prescribed by a clinic in India have any effect on breast cancer cell lines. We studied four ultra-diluted remedies (Carcinosin, Phytolacca, Conium and Thuja) against two human breast adenocarcinoma cell lines (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231) and a cell line derived from immortalized normal human mammary epithelial cells (HMLE). The remedies exerted preferential cytotoxic effects against the two breast cancer cell lines, causing cell cycle delay/arrest and apoptosis. These effects were accompanied by altered expression of the cell cycle regulatory proteins, including downregulation of phosphorylated Rb and upregulation of the CDK inhibitor p27, which were likely responsible for the cell cycle delay/arrest as well as induction of the apoptotic cascade that manifested in the activation of caspase 7 and cleavage of PARP in the treated cells. The findings demonstrate biological activity of these natural products when presented at ultra-diluted doses. Further in-depth studies with additional cell lines and animal models are warranted to explore the clinical applicability of these agents. In summary, our study demonstrates that the ultra-diluted natural product remedies prescribed in the ‘Banerji Protocol’ induce cell cycle delay/arrest with subsequent apoptosis in breast adenocarcinoma cells. Though the degree of the antisurvival effect appeared to correlate with the presence of the wild-type p53 gene, overall susceptibility to the inhibitory effects of the remedies appeared independent of the functional p53 and estrogen-receptor status of the breast carcinoma cells. Finally, the preferentially elevated cytotoxic effects on breast adenocarcinoma cells compared with cells derived from normal mammary epithelium raises the exciting possibility of a window of therapeutic opportunity for preferentially eliminating breast cancer cells with minimal damage to the surrounding normal mammary tissue by using the ultra-diluted remedies investigated in this report. The findings of this study should encourage further preclinical and animal investigation of these remedies as preventive and/or therapeutic treatments for breast cancer. LINK TO FULL ARTICLE |
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