Compound Found in Olives May Help Prevent Deadly Type of Breast Cancer

Summary

Researchers from the University of Jaén have found that hydrox­y­ty­rosol, a com­pound in olives and olive oil, may be a promis­ing alter­na­tive ther­apy for triple-neg­a­tive breast can­cer due to its chemo­pre­ven­tive prop­er­ties. The study showed that hydrox­y­ty­rosol could inhibit breast can­cer stem cells and tumor cell migra­tion, mak­ing it a poten­tial tar­geted ther­apy for this aggres­sive type of breast can­cer.

A chem­i­cal found in both olives and extra vir­gin olive oil may be use­ful as an alter­na­tive ther­apy for the pre­ven­tion of triple-neg­a­tive breast can­cer, accord­ing to research con­ducted by Spain’s University of Jaén.

The researchers have con­firmed the chemo­pre­ven­tive prop­er­ties that hydrox­y­ty­rosol might have in the treat­ment of this dis­ease.

Hydroxytyrosol is a type of phe­no­lic phy­to­chem­i­cal with antiox­i­dant prop­er­ties and is con­sid­ered one of the most pow­er­ful nat­ural antiox­i­dants. Its oxy­gen rad­i­cal absorb­ing capac­ity value is one of the high­est found in plants.

Hydroxytyrosol nat­u­rally occurs in olive plants and is mostly found in its leaves, extra vir­gin olive oils and table olives, in the form of eleno­lic acid ester ole­u­perin.

Triple-neg­a­tive breast can­cer is a very aggres­sive type of breast can­cer char­ac­ter­ized by a low sur­vival rate, a high pro­lif­er­a­tion and het­ero­gene­ity of can­cer cells and a high metasta­tic prob­a­bil­ity. It rep­re­sents approx­i­mately 10 to 20 per­cent of all breast can­cers.

The study, whose find­ings were recently pub­lished in the European Journal of Nutrition, was done to deter­mine the impact of hydrox­y­ty­rosol on the breast can­cer stem cells respon­si­ble for the reap­pear­ance of tumor metas­ta­sis.

Various in-vitro triple-neg­a­tive breast can­cer cell lines were used for the research, which reported for the first time the inhibitory role of hydrox­y­ty­rosol on breast can­cer stem cells and tumor cell migra­tion, through the alter­ation of epithe­lial-to-mes­enchy­mal tran­si­tion and embry­onic sig­nal­ing path­ways.

The find­ings revealed that hydrox­y­ty­rosol acts directly upon breast can­cer stem cells, reduc­ing their num­ber and aggres­sive­ness as well as inhibit­ing their capac­ity to mul­ti­ply.

“We report for the first time the inhibitory role of hydrox­y­ty­rosol on breast can­cer stem cells and tumor cell migra­tion by tar­get­ing epithe­lial-to-mes­enchy­mal tran­si­tion, Wnt/β‑catenin and trans­form­ing growth fac­tor beta sig­nal­ing path­ways,” Marina Cruz-Lozano and Adrián González-González, the study’s co-authors, wrote in the report.

“Our find­ings high­light the impor­tance of the chemo­pre­ven­tive com­pound hydrox­y­ty­rosol as a novel can­di­date to be inves­ti­gated as an alter­na­tive tar­geted ther­apy for triple-neg­a­tive breast can­cer.”

The study was con­ducted by researchers from the University of Jaén’s Hospital Unit for the Clinical Management of Medical Oncology with the sup­port of Granada’s Center of Genomics and Oncology Research.

Since 2015 this research group, led by Dr Sergio Granados, has been work­ing on the search for bio­mark­ers related to the appear­ance of metas­ta­sis, tumor reap­pear­ance and resis­tance to ther­a­peu­ti­cal treat­ment using stem cells as the axis of inves­ti­ga­tions.

The group believes that these pur­suits might help design new spe­cific and per­son­al­ized treat­ments, mainly for triple-neg­a­tive breast can­cer patients. In 2015 the group suc­ceeded in inhibit­ing gen ATF4, which con­tributes to metas­ta­sis.

The research find­ings on hydrox­y­ty­rosol are the basis of a clin­i­cal trial cur­rently being con­ducted at the Houston Methodist Hospital, which stud­ies the effects that this com­pound has on the pre­ven­tion of breast can­cer in high-risk patients. Additionally, they serve as as foun­da­tion for test­ing hydrox­y­ty­rosol in xeno­graphic ani­mal mod­els derived from triple-neg­a­tive breast can­cer patients.

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