October 12, 2007
Antrodia, a Component of the Mushroom Matrix, Aids in the Treatment of Breast Cancer
Deep in the forested backlands of Taiwan grows the Kanehirai tree. As the
tree grows in this warm, humid ecosystem, the inside of its trunk decays and
forms a hollow, moist, decaying center. Within this protected area, a
vermillion red fungs grows. This fungs is a basidiomycete polyporaceae
called Antrodia camphorata - a species of mushroom.
This rare and expensive fungs has been used in Chinese medicine for
hundreds of years to address health issues such as diarrhea, abdominal pain,
immune function, hypertension and, in herbal form, to treat liver
deficiencies such as hepatitis, cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer
(Tsai and Lian 1985). Recent research indicates that it also is effective
in treating some forms of breast cancer and Antrodia is one of the medicinal
mushroom species used in the making of the Mushroom Matrix.
A recent study by You-Cheng Hseu, Ssu-Ching Chen and associates at the China
Medicinal University in Taiwan examined the pathways by which Antrodia is
able to destroy two highly invasive types of breast cancer. Cancer of the
breast is the most common malignancy in Northwestern European and American
women. One common form of treatment is hormone chemotherapy. Unfortunately,
approximately one third of women treated with hormones progress into breast
cancer metastasis. For these women, hormone chemotherapy initially shows a
favorable response but then the cancer resists this therapy, which then
leads to death. In order to learn if Antrodia could be used to bypass this
hormone failure, this study looked specifically at a cancer which is
non-responsive to the hormone, estrogen.
Our cells protect the body from disease - cellular malfunction - such as DNA
damage, and from cancer by using specific pathways within the cell to
communicate with the cell and cause its destruction when the cell has
malfunctioned. Recent cancer research has focused on these pathways of
cell apoptosis. Scientists have found twenty-six specific pathways to cell
suicide.
The scientists performing the above-mentioned study found that Antrodia
caused the cancer cells to create protein chemicals through DNA expression.
These newly-created chemicals, once in high enough concentration, then react
with other proteins and ultimately cause the cell to destroy itself. Cell
apoptosis morphological hallmarks include a loss of cell volume,
hyperactivity of the plasma membrane and condensation of heterochromatin
with the cleavage of the nucleus into smaller fragments.
This study clearly showed the increased production of proteins used to
signal cell death. Another significant finding was the inhibition of the
COX-2 protein by Antrodia. Estrogen-independent, highly metastic breast
cancer cells express a protein enzyme known as COX-2. This protein
produces high prostaglandin E2 levels. It also signals cell growth and the
creation of new blood capillaries to tumors. When cancer invasiveness is
increased, the result is cancer metastasis, which is the spreading of the
initial cancer tissue to other tissues within the body. COX-2 protein
production ceases at an Antrodia concentration of 100ug per ml. A previous
study by the researchers showed significant apoptosis cell death against
estrogen-responsive cancer cells as well as premyelocytic leukemia cells
(Yang et. al. 2006).
The authors of this research report that apoptosis pathways to cancer
destruction have become a new therapeutic target in cancer research.
Currently proposed cancer treatment therapy is targeting COX-2 inhibition,
and the blockage of prostaglandins. This study clearly demonstrates that a
component part of the Mushroom Matrix, Antrodia, inhibits the protein COX-2,
which is responsible for causing metastic tumor growth. At the same time
Antrodia actuates parallel pathways that cause cancer cell demise. The
Mushroom Matrix provides these protective advantages with no toxic side
effects and in a whole food product.
This article was synopsized from the work of You-Cheng Hseu, Ssu-Ching Chen
et. al. and published as "Inhibition of cyclooxygenase-2 and induction of
apoptosis in estrogen nonresponsive breast cancer cells by Antrodia
camphorate" in Food and Chemical Toxicology, 45 (227) 1107-1115.
|
