Dr. Mohammad Saleem talks about recent findings in the prevention of cancer, centering on nontoxic, natural compounds. - Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com

Food compounds studied to combat cancer

Today is National Cancer Survivors Day and Dr. Mohammed Saleem Bhat wants to make sure more people are around to celebrate it.

Bhat, along with a team of scientists at the Hormel Institute, are making medical history through their research of natural, non-toxic compounds that in some cases prevent and destroy certain types of cancer cells. The best part? Many of these compounds come from our food.

“We don’t find toxicity in (our) diet,” Bhat said.

Bhat heads the Molecular Chemoprevention and Therapeutics department at the Hormel Institute, which has been around since February of 2010. He’s researched a compound called Lupeol for a lot longer, however. He’s looked at it for 15 years and made serious discoveries about it over the past 10 years.

“It’s taken about a decade” to research the compound, which is found (in very low doses) in fruits and herbs like mangos, strawberrys, tomatoes and other plants, according to Bhat.

What’s exciting about Lupeol is its tendency to prevent cancer from forming. Lupeol’s been studied by scientists for years, but Bhat and his team have found the compound can actually prevent prostate cancer from forming in test mice injected with human cancer cells. Bhat and his team also found the compound can affect early stages of cancer. In some cases, Hormel Institute scientists found mice with cancerous tumors had their tumors shrink over the course of 8-12 weeks. Bhat, a very passionate individual when talking about his findings, is encouraged by these results.

“The ultimate goal is to get this to the clinics,” Bhat said.

That will take some time, as Bhat and his team hope to examine Lupeol’s effects on mice that naturally get prostate cancer as opposed to having human strains of the cancer. They’ve already found Lupeol has worked on melanoma, or skin cancer, the same way, both preventing melanoma from taking hold in some mice and reducing melanoma cells in others.

The way Lupeol works, according to Bhat, is it attacks the way cancer binds with adhesion receptors, the parts of the cell that bind to other cells and allow us to form solid masses of cells. By closing the gate on adhesion receptors, as it were, it prevents cancer cells from moving, suspending their activity. Since the cancer cells are in suspension, the Lupeol compound gives signals to cancer cells to destroy themselves, effectively telling cancer to commit suicide.

“It’s remarkable,” Bhat said.

So remarkable in fact that Bhat and the Institute are trying to secure millions of dollars in funding from the National Institute of Health to do more research. While the NIH and the American Institute for Cancer Research have contributed funding before, this research is being recognized by scientists across the country and around the world as important.

That’s not the only compound the MCT department is working on. There’s a compound found in dark chocolate (in very low doses) that works on a similar level as Lupeol in some types of cancers. These compounds are found in many of the same herbs and plants that comprised some Native American tribal medicine to cure things like boils and other skin problems, Bhat said.

While Lupeol’s results are exciting, there’s plenty of tests to be done. Bhat hopes to one day have Lupeol supplements that people can take to lower their chances of getting cancer. That’s a long ways off, but Bhat is excited for the challenge.

“The potential of those compounds is amazing,” he said.