LONDON: The compound that makes spicy food hot could hold key to a new generation of cancer drugs that can destroy malignant cells without any side effects, according to a recent study.
Scientists from the Nottingham university, who carried out the study, found that capsaicin, an active ingredient in chillies and other spices, has the capacity to kill a variety of tumor cells, including those causing pancreatic cancer, one of the most difficult forms of cancer to manage. The scientists say capsaicin attacks mitochondria, the cancer cell's energy generator, and kills them.
Dr Timothy Bates, who led the research team, said the discovery could as well be an Achilles heel for all cancers because the capsaicin targets the very powerhouse of the cancer cells. This could lead to development of drugs that target mitochondria and at a fraction of the costs involved in developing the traditional cancer drugs.
The researchers say vanilloids, the family of molecules to which capsaicin belongs, bind to the proteins in the cancer cell mitochondria causing apoptosis, or cell death. This process does not affect the surrounding healthy cells.
Bates said the team's finding could possibly explain why countries like Mexico and India, where people usually consume a lot of spicy food, have a tendency to have lower incidences of several cancers compared with the Western world.
The scientists have tested capsaicin on cultures of human lung cancer cells and on pancreatic cancers and Bates described the results as "startling."
Bates describes that the biochemistry of the mitochondria in cancer cells is very different from that in normal cells. A dose of capsaicin that could lead to apoptosis of a cancer cell may not have the same effect on a normal cell.
Bates added that capsaicin is already used in treatments for muscle strain and psoriasis.
He said his team has already identified a number of compounds that are currently used in man for other diseases that have secondary anti-cancer actions and it is seeking industrial partners to have these compounds subjected to clinical trials to develop possible drugs for cancers.
Details of the study appear in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications.
