CANCER

Resveratrol inhibits pancreatic cancer stem cell properties

An article published on January 31, 2011 in the journal PLoS One reports that resveratrol, an antioxidant compound found in grapes and other plant foods, can modify the characteristics of pancreatic cancer stem cells, which could help prevent the development of the disease. 

In their introduction, Sharmila Shankar and colleagues at the University of Kansas Medical Center note that malignancies contain a small amount of tumor-forming cancer stem cells that are not destroyed by current chemotherapeutic drugs.  Although resveratrol has shown anticancer effects, the compound’s effects on pancreatic cancer stem cells had not been evaluated.

The researchers discovered a dose-dependent inhibitory effect for resveratrol on the viability of human pancreatic cancer stem cells in culture.  Resveratrol also reduced the growth of stem cell colonies, indicating an inhibitory effect for the compound on the cells’ ability to self-renew.  Furthermore, resveratrol was demonstrated to induce apoptosis in the cancer stem cells, inhibit transcription factors required for maintaining the cells’ pluripotency, and suppress a drug resistance gene.

When resveratrol was administered to KrasG12D mice that are bred to develop spontaneous tumors of the pancreas, the compound reduced the tumors’ growth and development.  Resveratrol was shown to completely eradicate pancreatic cancer stem cells in the mice after ten months of treatment.  An inhibitory effect for resveratrol on the self-renewal capacity of pancreatic cancer stem cells isolated from untreated mice was also observed.

“Our study demonstrates, for the first time, that cancer preventive agent resveratrol can inhibit the self-renewal capacity of pancreatic cancer stem cells derived from human primary tumors and KrasG12D mice in vitro,” the authors write. “We were unable to observe any pancreatic cancer stem cells in KrasG12D mice treated with resveratrol.”

“These data suggest that resveratrol can be used for the prevention and/or treatment of pancreatic cancer,” they conclude.