Study : Grapefruit Juice
Boosts Effect Of Rapamycin
Published On : May 23, 2009
According to a recently conducted research, grapefruit juice is considered
to have anti cancer properties in it and it is also found to have a
boosting effect on the anti cancer drug rapamycin.
During the study the patients were given around 15- to 35-mg of the drug
rapamycin once per week in the form of a liquid. After 1st week of the
research, the patients were given a glass of grapefruit juice immediately
after they took the drug. This process continued daily for about a week.
After following such a strict regime around 28% of the patients were
detected to have stable cancers with very little to no growth of the tumour. One of the patient had a 30% decrease in the tumour size after
being administered by the reatment form. However most of the patients
experienced various side effects like diarrhoea, increased in blood sugar
levels, lowering in the white blood cells number, and fatigue.
This study will be presented at Denver during the AMACR meeting. The
results of the study completely contradict with the previous researchers
and doctor’s beliefs that grapefruit juice may interferes with the body’s
enzyme and thus lead to the elimination of certain type of drugs.
Cancer specialist, Dr.Cohen from University of Chicago Medical Center
stated that people always knew about the effect grapefruit juice has on
increasing levels of certain drugs in the body of an individual; however
the scientists now wanted to examine the effect of grapefruit juice on the
drug rapamycin which is considered to be a potent drug treatment for
cancer.
Rapamycin, also known as sirolimus, was originally used for suppressing
the immune system of individuals; it also helped in reducing the rejection
rate during kidney transplant surgeries for patients suffering from kidney
failure. However these days rapamycin is being used and researched as a
potent cancer preventing drug because of its property to disrupt
biochemical pathways that lead to the development of new blood veins and
vessels for tumours to develop. But, when taken through mouth only around
15 % of rapamycin is absorbed by the body.
Grapefruit juice has been found to contain certain compounds known as
furanocoumarins that help in decreasing the breakdown of the drug
rapamycin and also help in increasing the levels of rapamycin in the blood
to about 3-4 times, thus enabling the drug reaching its target destination
easily. |
