A research group at the University of Tokyo, in collaboration with the University of the Philippines Los Banos, evaluated the antitumor effect of propolis obtained from the Philippine endemic honeybee, and found that it has a strong growth inhibitory effect on tumor cells of differentiated gastric cancer. , It was clarified that the antitumor effect can be expected even in the experiment with mice.
Propolis is a wax (beeswax) collected by bees from tree buds, sap, or other plant sources, and has a variety of bioactivity, depending on the type and vegetation of the bees.The University of the Philippines has found that propolis derived from the Philippine endemic honeybee is more bioactive than others.This time, we evaluated its functionality and usefulness through an international joint research project.
From experiments using cell lines derived from human gastric cancer patients with different characteristics, propolis showed strong growth inhibition only in gastric cancer cells with the properties of differentiated gastric cancer (cancer with a clear ductal structure), which is an indicator of cell division arrest. A strong increase in the expression of the "p21 molecule" was observed.
Therefore, we conducted a study experiment in vivo using a disease model mouse for differentiated gastric cancer.When propolis was orally administered daily for 30 days to mice at the stage of spontaneously developing differentiated gastric cancer, the gastric cancer regressed as compared with the control, and a significant decrease in proliferating cells and an increase in p21-positive cells were observed at the lesion site.
From the results of this experiment, it was clarified that Philippine propolis can effectively suppress the development of gastric cancer by reducing the growth of cancer cells for differentiated gastric cancer.In the future, we will pursue and clarify the molecular substance of the active ingredient showing antitumor activity, and whether it is effective for diseases other than differentiated gastric cancer, cultured cells (in vitro experiment) and disease model animals (in vivo experiment). ) Will be examined in combination with the experimental system.
Paper information:[Scientific Reports] Tumor-suppressing potential of stingless bee propolis in in vitro and in vivo models of differentiated-type gastric adenocarcinoma
