Jan. 30, 2013 ? A pair of University of Colorado Cancer Center studies published this month show that the milk thistle extract, silibinin, kills skin cells mutated by UVA radiation and protects against damage by UVB radiation -- thus protecting against UV-induced skin cancer and photo-aging.
"When you have a cell affected by UV radiation, you either want to repair it or kill it so that it cannot go on to cause cancer. We show that silibinin does both," says Rajesh Agarwal, PhD, co-program leader of Cancer Prevention and Control at the CU Cancer Center and professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
The first study, published in the journal Photochemistry and Photobiology worked with human skin cells subjected to UVA radiation, which makes up about 95 percent of the sun's radiation that reaches Earth. The Agarwal Lab treated these UVA-affected cells with silibinin. With silibinin, the rate at which these damaged cells died increased dramatically.
"When you take human skin cells -- keratinocytes -- and treat them with silibinin, nothing happens. It's not toxic. But when you damage these cells with UVA radiation, treatment with silibinin kills the cells," Agarwal says, thus removing the mutated cells that can cause skin cancer and photo-aging.
Specifically, the study shows that pretreatment with silibinin resulted in higher release of reactive oxygen species (ROS) within the UVA-exposed cells, leading to higher rates of cell death.
The second study, published this month by the same authors in the journal Molecular Carcinogenesis shows that instead of beneficially killing cells damaged by UVA radiation, treatment with silibinin protects human skill cells from damage by UVB radiation, which makes up about 5 percent of the sun's radiation reaching Earth.
Again, remember Agarwal's suggestion that the prevention of UV-induced skin cancer can happen in two ways: by protecting against DNA damage or by killing cells with damaged DNA. With UVA, silibinin kills; with UVB, it protects, in this case by increasing cells' expression of the protein interleukin-12, which works to quickly repair damaged cells.
"It has been 20 years of work with this compound, silibinin," Agarwal says. "We first noticed its effectiveness in treating both skin and solid cancers, and we now have a much more complete picture of the mechanisms that allow this compound to work."
Agarwal and colleagues continue to test the effectiveness of silibinin in cancer prevention and treatment in cell lines and mouse models, and are working toward human trials of silibinin-based therapeutics.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Colorado Denver. The original article was written by Garth Sundem.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Sreekanth Narayanapillai, Chapla Agarwal, Gagan Deep, Rajesh Agarwal. Silibinin inhibits ultraviolet B radiation-induced DNA-damage and apoptosis by enhancing interleukin-12 expression in JB6 cells and SKH-1 hairless mouse skin. Molecular Carcinogenesis, 2013; DOI: 10.1002/mc.22000
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/wRU_1K3abM0/130130143636.htm
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Overweight or obese kids have becoming an alarming epidemic across the globe. This problem is affecting households irrespective of class, color, sex and ethnicity. Children of both developing and developed nation are being affected with almost the same intensity. The extra pounds that these kids put on pose a greater health and emotional risk. They can be prone to diabetes, asthma and serious heart ailments. They can also suffer from mental stress because of the alienation from sports and other team activities, as well as possible teasing. They can also lack from enthusiasm and energy when it comes to do something.
Fighting obesity of a child and getting him or her back to correct shape and health is not someone?s lone responsibility. The best way to do it is to get the whole family involved. If the whole family starts eating healthy, and leads an active life, it will benefit everyone in the family. Moreover they will also become the role model of the child. Eat healthy and keep telling your child what you are eating, at times you can also discuss the positive effects of the food and offer him or her a bite too.
Make your children work. Let them run or jog or do physical exercise that makes calories burn. You can enroll them for swimming or martial arts or any form of sports that needs rigorous exercise. You can jog and ask them to cycle at a brisk pace with you, or they can run and you can cycle along with the, swimming is a very good option. Also gymnastics and other physically demanding and challenging sports can do a lot of good.
In May of 2012, I was delighted to hear Sally Clarkson speak in person at our area homeschool bookfair. ?Let me encourage you: if you are ever able to read her books or hear her speak, you will almost immediately notice that she fills your mind with words of challenge and vision in your role as mother.
Here are a few of the more challenging and encouraging quotes I've read so far in her book, The Mission of Motherhood: