Pome­gran­ate against colon cancer

Urolithin A, a meta­bol­ic prod­uct of the pome­gran­ate, can appar­ent­ly strength­en the immune sys­tem against colon can­cer. This is sug­gest­ed by lab­o­ra­to­ry tests. Tests on humans are now to follow.

An active ingre­di­ent from the pome­gran­ate may be suit­able for fight­ing colon can­cer. In clin­i­cal stud­ies, researchers at the Frank­furt Can­cer Insti­tute want to con­firm what they found in lab­o­ra­to­ry exper­i­ments: urolithin A, a metabo­lite of the pome­gran­ate, can prob­a­bly change human immune cells so that they can fight tumors better.

The sci­en­tists found that urolithin A in T cells pro­motes the replace­ment of old­er and dam­aged mito­chon­dria with new ones. Mito­chon­dria are the “pow­er plants” of the cell. Accord­ing to the study, the genet­ic pro­gram of the immune cells changes as a result of the exchange, so that they can attack can­cer cells better.

In the lab­o­ra­to­ry, urolithin A can lim­it tumor growth and pro­mote the for­ma­tion of mem­o­ry T cells, from which new T cells can devel­op. Appar­ent­ly, the sub­stance also enhances the effect of oth­er drugs, so that it may be suit­able for com­bi­na­tion therapies.

Source

• Frank­furter All­ge­meine Zeitung
  
  https://www.faz.net/aktuell/rhein-main/frankfurt/granatapfel-wirkstoff-koennte-gegen-darmkrebs-helfen-18426707.html?GEPC=s5
• Expan­sion of T mem­o­ry stem cells with supe­ri­or anti-tumor immu­ni­ty by Urolithin A‑induced mitophagy
  
  https://www.cell.com/immunity/fulltext/S1074-7613(22)00508–8?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS1074761322005088%3Fshowall%3Dtrue