Researchers at the ibs.GRANADA analyze the antitumor effect 'in vitro' of various bioactive components of coffee
The researcher María Angel García Chaves, member of the ibs.GRANADA research group "Advanced Therapies, Differentiation, Regeneration and Cancer" together with the head of the group Juan Antonio Marchal Corrales and his team, have collaborated with the group led by Luis Fernando Barbisan, from the State University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, in the study of bioactive components of coffee with different antitumor properties.
In a bibliographic review recently published in the journal Food Research International, Researchers point out that coffee consumption can reduce the risk of cancer of the digestive tract (oral, esophageal, gastric and colorectal) and, especially, liver cancer. Beverages derived from coffee beans, such as the widely consumed espresso, among others, have considerable historical, cultural and economic importance worldwide.
These beverages have a rich and variable chemical composition, depending on different growing and manufacturing factors. The alkaloids caffeine and trigonelline, as well as the polyphenol ester, chlorogenic acid, are some of the most important bioactive organic compounds in these beverages, which show high levels in coffee and have been shown to modulate common molecular targets directly involved in key characteristics. cancer.
The doctoral student Ariane Rocha from the Brazilian University is currently doing a stay at the University of Granada to analyze whether these components of coffee are effective against the subpopulations of Cancer Stem Cells (CMC), protagonists of the lines of research led by María Ángel García, Juan Antonio Marchal and their team from the “Doctors Galera and Requena Research on Cancer Stem Cells” Chair at the University of Granada.
Due to the aggressiveness and resistance to conventional therapies, such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy, that these subpopulations present, the study, characterization and search for preventive therapies and specific drugs against these CMCs are of great interest in order to avoid metastases and relapses of this disease.
Dr. Juan Antonio Marchal's group has extensive experience on the subject, as derived from his numerous quality publications and research projects in development, experience that Ariane and her Brazilian research team take advantage of with great enthusiasm and hope to evaluate whether coffee compounds have activity against CMC and deepen the mechanisms involved in how this drink can help in the prevention and fight against cancer.
Drinking coffee can reduce the risk of cancer of the digestive tract (oral, esophageal, gastric and colorectal) and, especially, liver cancer.
Bibliographic reference:
Drinking for protection? Epidemiological and experimental evidence on the beneficial effects of coffee or major coffee compounds against gastrointestinal and liver carcinogenesis,
Romualdo GR, Rock AB, Vinken M, Cogliati B, Moreno F.S., Garcia BUT, Barbisan LF
Food Res Int. 2019 Sep; 123: 567-589. doi: 10.1016 / j.foodres.2019.05.029. Epub 2019 May 22.