Novel Anticarcinogenic Effect of a Nutrient Mixture: Inhibition of MMPs, Invasion and Growth of Human Rhabdomyosarcoma in vitro

Roomi MW, Ivanov V, Niedzwiecki A and Rath M
Matthias Rath Research Institute, Cancer Division, Santa Clara, CA 95050

Presented at: 
46th Annual Meeting of the American College of Nutrition, Charleston, South Carolina, Sept 22-25, 2005

Published in: 
Journal of the American College of Nutrition, vol 24(5), Oct 2005, abstract #75

Comment

Rhabdomyosarcoma is the most common soft tissue sarcoma of mesenchymal origin in infants and children. We investigated the effect of a nutrient mixture (NM) of lysine, proline, ascorbic acid and green tea extract, shown previously to have potent antitumor effects on various cancer cell lines, on MMP expression, invasion and growth of pediatric rhabdomyosarcoma. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) play a crucial role in tumor cell invasion, metastasis and angiogenesis, due to their ability to digest ECM and basement membrane. NM inhibited MMP-2 and MMP-9 secretion in a dose-dependent fashion, with virtual total inhibition at 500 ?g/ml NM and blocked Matrigel invasion at 10, 50, 100 and 500 ?g/ml by 70%, 80%, 90% and 100% respectively. H&E staining did not indicate any change even at the highest concentration. Our results are significant as they indicate that the relatively non-toxic NM has strong potential in rhabdomyosarcoma treatment.

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