Common Olive Pomace Compound Demonstrates Anticancer Potential

Researchers at the University of Granada have devel­oped nanopar­ti­cles of maslinic acid, a nat­ural com­pound derived from olive oil pro­duc­tion waste.

These nanopar­ti­cles exhibit remark­able poten­tial in com­bat­ing var­i­ous can­cers, includ­ing breast, colon, pan­cre­atic and prostate. The team’s approach aims to enhance effec­tive­ness and broaden the maslinic acid appli­ca­tions in oncol­ogy.

Maslinic acid is a nat­u­rally occur­ring com­pound extracted from the byprod­ucts of olive oil pro­duc­tion. It boasts a range of sig­nif­i­cant health ben­e­fits, mak­ing it a valu­able can­di­date for med­ical research.

Among its notable attrib­utes, maslinic acid demon­strates potent antiox­i­dant prop­er­ties, shield­ing the body from oxida­tive stress and mit­i­gat­ing the risk of dis­eases asso­ci­ated with oxida­tive dam­age, such as car­dio­vas­cu­lar con­di­tions, can­cer, and pre­ma­ture aging.

In addi­tion, maslinic acid exhibits anti-inflam­ma­tory effects and is an effec­tive antimi­cro­bial agent against var­i­ous bac­te­ria and fungi.

This antimi­cro­bial activ­ity aids in com­bat­ing infec­tions and inhibit­ing the pro­lif­er­a­tion of harm­ful microor­gan­isms within the body. However, maslinic acid’s most dis­tin­guish­ing fea­ture lies in its poten­tial to fight can­cer.

Laboratory tests on cells revealed maslinic acid’s promis­ing role as a can­cer cell growth inhibitor, pro­mot­ing pro­grammed cell death (apop­to­sis) in mul­ti­ple can­cer types, includ­ing breast, colon and prostate can­cer.

It also impedes angio­gen­e­sis, the process by which new blood ves­sels nour­ish tumors. Due to its ver­sa­til­ity and ther­a­peu­tic poten­tial, maslinic acid has gar­nered sub­stan­tial inter­est in the med­ical and health­care sec­tors. Nevertheless, its prac­ti­cal appli­ca­tion has been lim­ited due to its low water sol­u­bil­ity, mea­sur­ing at a mere 3.6 micro­grams per liter.

The break­through the University of Granada researchers achieved involves engi­neer­ing nanopar­ti­cles that sig­nif­i­cantly enhance maslinic acid’s sol­u­bil­ity in aque­ous solu­tions, sur­pass­ing one mil­lion times its orig­i­nal sol­u­bil­ity.

This crit­i­cal advance­ment enables the com­pound’s uti­liza­tion across var­i­ous fields. Moreover, these nanopar­ti­cles are designed to trans­port other water-insol­u­ble drugs within them, result­ing in a dual anti­tu­mor effect – a com­bi­na­tion of the maslinic acid’s inher­ent prop­er­ties and the potency of the encap­su­lated drug. This inno­va­tion holds great promise for enhanc­ing the effi­cacy of can­cer treat­ments.

The result­ing nanopar­ti­cles have a size rang­ing between 120 and 160 nanome­ters, exhibit uni­form dis­per­sion and remark­able sta­bil­ity and retain their prop­er­ties for up to six months when stored.

Cell-based assays demon­strated the cyto­toxic activ­ity of these nanopar­ti­cles against breast and pan­cre­atic can­cer cell lines, with lower tox­i­c­ity observed in healthy cells (fibrob­lasts).

Additionally, the rapid inter­nal­iza­tion of these nanopar­ti­cles by can­cer cells was observed, demon­strat­ing their capac­ity to trans­port widely used chemother­apy drugs for pan­cre­atic and breast can­cer – pacli­taxel and doc­etaxel, respec­tively.

Experiments on mice ver­i­fied the nanopar­ti­cles’ non-toxic nature and suit­abil­ity for intra­venous and oral admin­is­tra­tion.

Notably, oral admin­is­tra­tion is pre­ferred by patients due to its high accept­abil­ity. These nanopar­ti­cles are for­mu­lated with a poly­meric shell that per­mits the attach­ment of tar­get­ing mol­e­cules, facil­i­tat­ing a more selec­tive anti­tu­mor treat­ment, specif­i­cally tar­get­ing tumor cells while spar­ing healthy ones.

“We have seen that these nanopar­ti­cles, whether admin­is­tered intra­venously or orally, are all able to reach the dif­fer­ent organs in the body,” said Juan Antonio Marchal Corrales, a researcher at the University of Granada and co-author of the study. ​“And, with proper tar­get­ing, we could tar­get them directly to tumor cells, but not healthy cells.”

“This is a major leap for­ward in the search for new ther­a­peu­tic strate­gies that pro­duce fewer side effects and that are more selec­tive in the fight against these two types of can­cer, mainly triple-neg­a­tive breast can­cer and pan­cre­atic can­cer, which are can­cers with a high mor­tal­ity rate,” he added.

This sys­tem extends the poten­tial appli­ca­tions of maslinic acid across var­i­ous domains. These nanopar­ti­cles can be com­bined with dif­fer­ent drugs and tai­lored to suit spe­cific treat­ment require­ments in can­cer treat­ment. This ver­sa­til­ity posi­tions the nanosys­tem as a potent tool in the ongo­ing bat­tle against can­cer.

• Biomed Pharmacother