JHU Med 2002-47 (broccoli chemical vs. stomach cancer)

[Dennis O'Shea]

Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
Office of Communications and Public Affairs
Media Contact: Joanna Downer
410-614-5105
E-mail: jdowner1@jhmi.edu
May 21, 2002

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EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE ON MONDAY, MAY 27, AT 5 P.M. EDT
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DIETARY COMPONENT KILLS BACTERIAL CAUSE OF ULCERS AND STOMACH CANCER; 
Laboratory Finding Points to Possible Economical Treatment of Infection

A bacterium responsible for the vast majority of stomach cancers, a leading 
cause of cancer death worldwide, and ulcers may have met its match, 
scientists from Johns Hopkins and the French National Scientific Research 
Center report in the May 28 edition of the Proceedings of the National 
Academy of Sciences.

The research team discovered that sulforaphane, a compound found in 
broccoli and broccoli sprouts, kills the bacterium in laboratory studies. 
The findings should lead quickly to clinical trials to see whether dietary 
intake of vegetables containing sulforaphane can relieve infection, the 
researchers say.

In all but 15 to 20 percent of cases, combinations of powerful antibiotics 
can kill helicobacter pylori, the bacterium that was recognized 20 years 
ago as the cause of debilitating stomach ulcers and often fatal stomach 
cancers. Unfortunately, the regions of the world where the infection is 
most common are the same places where using antibiotics is most 
economically and logistically difficult.

"In some parts of Central and South America, Africa and Asia, as much as 80 
percent to 90 percent of the population is infected with helicobacter, 
likely linked to poverty and conditions of poor sanitation," says study 
leader Jed Fahey, a plant physiologist in the Department of Pharmacology 
and Molecular Sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. "If future 
clinical studies show that a food can relieve or prevent diseases 
associated with this bacterium in people, it could have significant public 
health implications in the United States and around the world."

In their laboratory experiments, the scientists discovered that purified 
sulforaphane even killed helicobacter that was resistant to commonly used 
antibiotics. They also proved that sulforaphane can kill the bacterium 
whether it's inside or outside cells. In people, cells lining the stomach 
can act as reservoirs of helicobacter, making it more difficult to get rid 
of the infection, says Fahey.

Even though the pure compound kills helicobacter efficiently, it remains to 
be seen whether dietary sources of sulforaphane (broccoli or broccoli 
sprouts, for instance) have similar effects. If so, vegetables native or 
adapted to various regions could be used by local populations to reduce 
helicobacter infection, notes Fahey, who has compiled a list of vegetables 
that contain sulforaphane or related compounds.

"We've known for some time that sulforaphane had modest antibiotic 
activity," says Fahey, who is also affiliated with the Center for Human 
Nutrition at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "However, 
its potency against helicobacter, even those strains resistant to 
conventional antibiotics, was a pleasant surprise."

Sulforaphane was initially isolated from broccoli at Johns Hopkins because 
of its ability to protect cells against cancer by boosting their production 
of "phase 2" enzymes, a family of proteins that detoxify certain 
cancer-causing agents and damaging free radicals. However, the compound's 
antibiotic abilities are not well understood and are likely to occur 
through some other mechanism, says Fahey.

Sulforaphane can protect against chemically induced stomach cancer in mice, 
the research team also found, but more studies are needed to know whether 
it can do the same against helicobacter-induced stomach cancer and whether 
dietary sulforaphane, rather than pure sulforaphane, will do the trick.

The French group was led by Alain Lozniewski. Other authors on the report 
are Xavier Haristoy and Isabelle Scholtus of the French National Scientific 
Research Center; Patrick Dolan and Thomas Kensler of the Johns Hopkins 
Bloomberg School of Public Health; and Katherine Stephenson and Paul 
Talalay of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

The experiments were funded by the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Foundation, 
the Barbara Lubin Goldsmith Foundation, the McMullan Family Fund and the 
U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Fahey, Talalay and The Johns Hopkins University own stock in Brassica 
Protection Products (BPP), a company whose mission is to develop 
chemoprotective food products and which sells broccoli sprouts. Fahey and 
Talalay are board members and scientific consultants to BPP, and stock they 
own is subject to certain restrictions under University policy. The terms 
of this arrangement are being managed by The Johns Hopkins University in 
accordance with its conflict of interest policies.

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