Olive Oil's Oleic Acid Suppresses Breast Cancer

Researchers have found that oleic acid, a fatty acid occurring in high concentrations in olive oil, one of the main components of the Mediterranean diet, has a suppressive effect on breast cancer cells and augments the effectiveness of trastuzumab, an important chemotherapy agent for the treatment of breast cancer.

Investigators at Northwestern University School of Medicine (Chicago, IL, USA) worked with BT-474 and SKBr-3 breast cancer cells, which naturally exhibit amplification of the HER2/neu oncogene. They used an assortment of methods including flow cytometry, western blotting, immunofluorescence microscopy, metabolic status (MTT), soft-agar colony formation, enzymatic in situ labeling of apoptosis-induced DNA double-strand breaks (TUNEL assay analyses), and caspase-3-dependent poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) cleavage assays to evaluate the effect of added oleic acid on the cancer cells and especially on the activity of the HER-2/neu gene.

They reported in the January 10, 2005, online edition of the Annals of Oncology that oleic acid reduced the activity of HER2/neu by up to 46%. When given together with trastuzumab, oleic acid enhanced the ability of trastuzumab to inhibit signaling pathways downstream of HER2/neu, including phosphoproteins such as AKT and MAPK. Furthermore, oleic acid increased the expression of the p27Kip1 protein, a tumor suppresser protein, which has been implicated in the development of resistance to trastuzumab treatment.

First author Dr. Javier Menendez, assistant professor at the Northwestern University School of Medicine, said, "Our findings underpin epidemiological studies that show that the Mediterranean diet has significant protective effects against cancer, heart disease, and aging. They may also help in designing future epidemiological studies and, eventually, dietary counseling to delay or prevent drug resistance developing in patients.”



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