Compound in red wine may prevent breast cancer

Jul 8 2008

Red wine, or rather the natural compound resveratrol found in the red grapes used to make the wine, is in the news again for all the right reasons.

Scientists in the U.S. have found in early laboratory research that resveratrol suppresses the abnormal cell formation that leads to most types of breast cancer.

They suggest there may be a potential role for the compound in breast cancer prevention.

Resveratrol is a common dietary supplement sold in extract form at most major drug stores but is a natural substance found in red wine and red grapes.

The scientists from the University of Nebraska Medical Center say resveratrol has the ability to prevent the first step that occurs when estrogen starts the process that leads to cancer by blocking the formation of the estrogen DNA adducts.

Professor Eleanor G. Rogan, who led the study says they believe that resveratrol could halt the progression that leads to breast cancer.

Professor Rogan, from the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases at the university and her team measured the effect of resveratrol on cellular functions known to contribute to breast cancer.

They say the formation of breast cancer is a multi-step process which differs depending on the type of disease, a patient's genetic makeup and other factors and scientists know that many breast cancers are fueled by increased estrogen, which collects and reacts with DNA molecules to form adducts.

Professor Rogan and her colleagues found that resveratrol was able to suppress the formation of these DNA adducts and she says this is dramatic because fairly low concentrations of resveratrol were used.

Although the researchers experimented with up to 100 µmol/L of resveratrol, the suppression of DNA adducts was seen with 10 µmol/L... a glass of red wine contains between 9 and 28 µmol/L of resveratrol.

The researchers also found that resveratrol suppressed the expression of CYP1B1 and the formation of 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, two known risk factors for breast cancer.

Professor Rogan says resveratrol works by inducing an enzyme called quinone reductase, which reduces the estrogen metabolite back to inactive form... by making the estrogen inactive, resveratrol decreases the associated risk.

Professor Rogan says the study was conducted in laboratory cultures, and will now need to be confirmed in larger human trials.

The research is published in the current issue of Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.