LifeVantage Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: LFVN), the maker of Protandim®, a clinically proven, science-based therapy for oxidative stress, announced today that a new peer-reviewed study involving Protandim® was published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE. The study, conducted by researchers at Louisiana State University, examined the biochemical mechanisms that underlie the ability of Protandim® to suppress tumors in mice. That ability was previously demonstrated by the authors in a study involving a mouse two-stage model of chemically-induced skin cancer. Protandim®, a patented dietary supplement comprised of five highly synergistic herbal ingredients, has been shown in earlier studies to activate the transcription factor Nrf2, a signal to the cell's DNA to regulate a network of protective genes. This new study further investigates Protandim's® ability to increase production of the body's Nrf2-regulated protective genes, sometimes referred to as "survival genes", specifically in regard to chemoprevention.
The study, titled "The Chemopreventive Effects of Protandim: Modulation of p53 Mitochondrial Translocation and Apoptosis during Skin Carcinogenesis" by D. Robbins, X. Gu, R. Shi, J. Liu, F. Wang, J. Ponville, J.M. McCord, and Y. Zhao, is published in the open access online journal PLoS ONE and may be found at the following link. The researchers previously reported on the ability of Protandim to reduce both the incidence and the number of skin cancers in mice.
In the two-stage model of cancer, the first stage, initiation, involves DNA mutation. The second stage, promotion, induces existing tumor cells to proliferate. The results of the study suggest that Protandim's ability to signal the cell to suppress p53, in turn decreasing levels of Bax, a protein that causes programmed cell death or apoptosis, combined with increasing levels of super oxide dismutase, may play an important role in the tumor suppressive activity of Protandim in this mouse model. Tumor promotion produces increased numbers of apoptotic cells in the skin of mice. Protandim-supplementation of the mice almost completely suppressed this promotion-associated apoptosis. Overall, these results further demonstrate the effectiveness of multi-modal antioxidant based therapies in chemoprevention.
Protandim® was shown in an earlier human trial to increase antioxidant enzyme production and to eliminate the age-dependent increase in the most widely used marker of oxidative stress. The current study, as well as other recent studies, have shown that Protandim® provides benefits to the body that extend beyond its ability to decrease oxidative stress.
"This study was independently funded by the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport," stated David Brown, LifeVantage President and CEO. "LifeVantage greatly appreciates the continuing academic interest in Protandim shown by cancer researchers such as Dr. Yunfeng Zhao and his colleagues. We continue to be amazed at the powerful tool Protandim® is for researchers of many health conditions associated with oxidative stress."
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