Will Alphafetoprotein protect against breast cancer?
Recent studies have shown that hormones produced during pregnancy, including estrogen, progesterone and chorionic gonadotropin, protect the female body from the development of breast cancer. Scientists at the Center for Immunology and Microbial Diseases of the Albany Medical College (New York), working under the guidance of Dr. Herbert Jacobson, have found that these hormones induce the production of a protein that suppresses the development of breast cancer. This protein, alphafetoprotein, can theoretically be used as a stable, well–tolerated means for the prevention and treatment of breast cancer.
The authors decided to test the hypothesis that the introduction of "pregnancy hormones" to rats exposed to carcinogens will trigger the synthesis of alphafetoprotein (which is usually synthesized in the liver and yolk sac of the embryo) in adult animals, thereby preventing the development of breast cancer in the absence of pregnancy.
The results of the study showed that the administration of a combination of estrogen and progesterone, as well as estrogen or chorionic gonadotropin separately reduced the likelihood of developing breast cancer in rats. Moreover, the authors state that each of the hormone administration options increased the level of alphafetoprotein in the blood serum of animals, and that the addition of alphafetoprotein to the culture medium suppressed the growth of breast cancer cells. All these data indicate that pregnancy hormones prevent the development of breast cancer by inducing the synthesis of alphafetoprotein.
The results of the work were published on November 24 in the preliminary on-line version of the journal Cancer Prevention Research in the article "A Proposed Unified Mechanism for the Reduction of Human Breast Cancer Risk by the Hormones of Pregnancy".
The researchers did not receive direct evidence of the preventive antitumor effect of alphafetoprotein. They only revealed the ability of hormones to prevent the formation of breast tumors, but this effect was observed only in 30-50% of experimental animals. Therefore, it is still very early to talk about the clinical application of promising results, but there is no doubt about the need for further research. Currently, the authors are already working on the transformation of a small fragment of the alphafetoprotein molecule isolated by them into a means of preventing breast cancer.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of Science Daily: Protein from Pregnancy Hormone May Prevent Breast Cancer.
27.11.2009