Capsaicin Shown to Be Potent Anticancer Agent

The hot ingredient in red chili pepper, called capsaicin, has cancer-fighting properties that prevent or slow the growth of pancreatic cancer tumors implanted in mice, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (PA, USA) found that capsaicin fed orally to mice with human pancreatic tumors caused the cancer cells to die through apoptosis. Their findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Washington (DC, USA) in April 2006.

Lead investigator Dr. Sanjay K. Srivastava, Ph.D., and colleagues fed mice grafted with human pancreatic tumors different amounts of capsaicin for five days per week or three days per week, according to their weight, then compared tumor size and levels of apoptotic proteins in the tumors to those in a control group of mice that received normal saline only. They found that the mice that received the capsaicin had increased levels of proteins associated with apoptosis and significantly smaller tumors sizes than the control group. Tumors treated with capsaicin were half the size of tumors in nontreated mice. Further testing revealed that capsaicin disrupted the mitochondrial function, which resulted in the release of several apoptotic proteins but it did not negatively affect normal pancreatic cells.

"Our results demonstrate that capsaicin is a potent anticancer agent, induces apoptosis in cancer cells and produces no significant damage to normal pancreatic cells, indicating its potential use as a novel agent for the prevention and treatment of pancreatic cancer,” said Dr. Srivastava.



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